Quote:
Originally Posted by sokinwet
First, your perception of the current municipal finance situation in most communities is not based on the reality currently on the ground. As you may have surmised, I work in municipal gov't in one of the largest S.S. communities and have daily interaction with most of the surrounding communities. Here's a summary of the "public employee rising pay & benefits" we've had in the past few years...no COLA for 5 years running, increase in our H.C.plan costs, change in our H.C.plan to the state GIC program (to save the community/residents $), increase in our new GIC plan cost twice in 6 months, furloughs ranging from 1/3 weeks and layoffs in the coming year in virtually every dept. I think we've done our part, yet every week we hear the same BS you're preaching .
[COLOR="Navy"]Your community may be different, but here are some reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as of December 2009:
Comparison of State and Local benefits to that of the private sector between 2001 and 2009:
The public sector bennies rose 4 times as much as in the private sector, especially since 2004.
As of December of 2009 the cost of Health Care is:
$4.45/hour for the public sector
$3.19/hour for the private sector
Cost for retirement"
$3.19/hour for the public sector
.92 cents/hour for the private sector
Average combined wage packages:
$39.83/hour for public sector ($26.24 in wages/$13.60 in bennies)
$27.49/hour for private sec. ($19.95 wages/$8.05 bennies)
Percent of increase in employer costs between 2000 & 2009:
State & Local--9.8% increase in costs
Private sector--6.9% increas in costs
Average employment rate between 2007-2009
Government--3% avg. unemployment
Private--7.9% (more than twice Govt.)
Just like the private employer, residents (the "ultimate" boss) must decide their priorities. If the employer wants to keep making wigets the costs of running a business must be paid, and decisions must be made on the best way to keep the business running. If residents want to maintain "their" level of services, costs have to be paid or decisions have to be made. If residents feel that they're not getting what they pay for, I agree with you, the changes have to come from the employee side; but if the service provided is good the only fair solution is to share the hit across the board. As I said before, governments job is to provided services "to you" as efficiently as it can, beyond that you only get what you pay for. You want to pay your employees $15 an hr.....you get $15 an hr. employees....and before long the widgets will be made in China and when you call your city clerks office you'll be speaking long distance to someone with an Indian accent.
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I was also a municipal employee. So I can sympathize. But I never felt comfortable knowing that I made more money than most of those that paid my salary. Before our division was unionized, we actually were paid closer to a par with the average private employee. But we had far greater security. With unionization, we were transformed from service orientation to labor intensiveness. Our contracts became about our compensation and bennies, not about how we served the public. The rest of the city was unionized shortly before, and we all became about us, and what was once a great city became, between the ravaging of the auto and other industries and the city government, a model of total failure. Detroitified.
After retirement, I work part-time at a local golf course so that I can play for free. It is owned by the city, but is contracted to a private Golf Co. The city could not, because of the cost of its union labor, profitably run the course. It had deteriorated to a cow path. The private co. has managed to make it a golfing jewel and make a small profit.
So, now, yes, tough decisions have to be made. Yes, municipal bankruptcies are imminent. If tough decisions are made, rather than constant, inflationary and debt loading Federal Govt. bailouts, we may slowly return to some sustainable level. If not, in the words of Louis XV--apres moi, le deluge.