I’m with Mike Stoker on this: We have got to break the circle of government employee union dues going to finance the campaigns of politicians. The politicians award the employees grandly with wages and benefits. The taxpayers pay the bills.
There have been lots of assertions about the public employees’ work schedules being shorter than the private sector’s, the pay rates higher, and the pensions better. (Reference Lanny Ebenstien’s column in the Santa Barbara News-Press in the Feb. 27 Opinion section.)
How about an article on the wage scale, hours, pensions, and other data on the public employees of the two counties, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo? It would be tough to compare police and firemen to the private sector, but to each city/county entity, it could shed some light. Clerks, admins, computer techs, truck drivers, equipment operators, electricians, carpenters, and the like should be straightforward.
What say you?
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2011.
