Stockton, California city workers who attended the unveiling of
a new report detailing the trends in public-employee compensation
in California on Wednesday night complained about cuts in their
compensation packages that are causing hardship for them and their
city.
But the report, prepared on behalf of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation, and released at a meeting of the San Joaquin County Taxpayers Association, left me searching for the world’s smallest violin—that fictional instrument I like to play whenever my kids or anyone else starts whining about something that’s largely their own fault.
The city of Stockton is bankrupt, following more than a decade of a Bacchanalian feasting on taxpayer dollars, including the creation of a lifetime medical benefit for city employees, and the provision of the most-generous “3 percent at 50” pension system to its highly-paid public safety officials.
The city burned through its pension-obligation bonds—the equivalent of a family taking out a loan to pay the mortgage—and is now trying to stiff its bondholders. There was no obvious complaint by city unions or employees during the tax feast, but now that they are facing “cuts”—some real, but others involving rollbacks in expected raises and limits on special-pay gimmicks -- they and their members are playing the victim.
But the numbers tell the story.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/19/how-government-workers-profit-at-taxpaye
But the report, prepared on behalf of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation, and released at a meeting of the San Joaquin County Taxpayers Association, left me searching for the world’s smallest violin—that fictional instrument I like to play whenever my kids or anyone else starts whining about something that’s largely their own fault.
The city of Stockton is bankrupt, following more than a decade of a Bacchanalian feasting on taxpayer dollars, including the creation of a lifetime medical benefit for city employees, and the provision of the most-generous “3 percent at 50” pension system to its highly-paid public safety officials.
The city burned through its pension-obligation bonds—the equivalent of a family taking out a loan to pay the mortgage—and is now trying to stiff its bondholders. There was no obvious complaint by city unions or employees during the tax feast, but now that they are facing “cuts”—some real, but others involving rollbacks in expected raises and limits on special-pay gimmicks -- they and their members are playing the victim.
But the numbers tell the story.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/19/how-government-workers-profit-at-taxpaye
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