There is a great divide between local government employees and the public they serve. Sunday’s article on the city compensation in the News Journal shows how out of sync things have gotten.
We’ve been chipping away at the issue since August 2007 when we published all the city and county salaries ( Cha Ching!). We wrote about the double dipping, DROP and City pensions in April 2008 (Feed the Beast).
I interviewed on IN Your Head Radio St. Petersburg Times investigative reporter and Pulitizer prize-winning journalist Lucy Morgan on the double-dipping in Florida. This interview led to our story “Feed the Beast.” Listen.
My Outtakes have tried to point out city staff operates under a different set of rules and expectations than the rest of us: Pink Slip Solution;
Sacred Staff ; Pink Pension Elephants.
I understand the argument that the city council is obligated to honor pension commitments and employment contracts. However, is it fair to ask the taxpayers – some of whom have no pensions and retirement plans or have seen their 401k plans lose 70 to 90 percent of their value- pay high taxes and forgo city services to pay for plans that are more lucrative than any in the private sector?