I Left My Fat Paycheck in San Francisco

And you thought you were so smart to go to work in the private sector. Take a look at this. When applicable, some of the figures include overtime. For nurse #1, her salary was in the $110k range and then added about $240k in overtime. There are prison dentists making $300k per year from San Diego to Santa Cruz. It's a racket. Become a police officer, boost your overtime in the 5 years leading to retirement and retire at 42 with a pension worth $2 million. Taxpayer suckas.

We must not have a bailout of California and other spoiled, bloated states. Their public-sector employee unions need a stringent dose of recession reality. The heyday is over. And taxpayers from states more in touch with fiscal sanity should not be asked to fund the largess of the grossly irresponsible. At its core it's an issue of fairness and accountability. Jefferson made it clear in the Constitution that the citizenry of one state should not bear the burden of another's misdeeds and miscalculations. We can only hope Barney Frank (and his bill to back all municipal and state debt) and Tim Geithner (a sucker for any bailout plea) do not end up supporting the wrong actors again.

A chart that will have you foaming:

Comments

[hermanbrut:]

Bogus numbers here. Another Limbough-style guy making up stuff for people who like being "outraged" at whatever.
WhatsamataU? Can't find a feminazi girlfriend to beat up?
Why don't you guys get a life?

May 31 10:03 AM

[Mad Hedge F...:]

Things are worse than that. California voters resoundingly rejected all five out of six budgetary measures by an overwhelming two to one margin, setting the stage for a new financial crisis. Trashed at the polls were plans to create a rainy day fund, improve education, borrow from the state lottery, and pay for children’s services and mental health. Only prop 1F, freezing legislator pay raises during deficit years, passed. The state now has to immediately cut spending by $21 billion by laying off 10,000 teachers, 5,000 other state workers, and shortening the school year by seven days. It will raid every city and county government for additional cash. The state will also release 20,000 non violent state prisoners and suspend maintenance and construction on thousands of projects. My home town high school is closing their sports and music programs. If the state’s latest round of $6.5 billion in bond issues did not carry federal government guarantees, they would have been wiped out in the market. No doubt our well tanned, Austrian immigrant governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was in Washington DC for a CAFE photo op with Obama, will be sent back to the gym to pump iron sooner than he thinks.

May 31 12:13 PM

[JK Corcoran:]

You know Mad, one might think you are attempting to boost your post numbers by resubmitting the same comment to various and sundry articles. I wouldn't have a problem with this other than the fact that your statement is full of falsehoods. None of your "facts" are accurate. This is not a voting problem, it is a problem caused by politicians who gave the unions a stranglehold on the state's tax revenues. A word to the Federal Government; take note! You are doing the same thing with the Federal revenues (and GM too!)!


On May 31 12:13 PM Mad Hedge Fund Trader wrote:

> Things are worse than that. California voters resoundingly rejected
> all five out of six budgetary measures by an overwhelming two to
> one margin, setting the stage for a new financial crisis. Trashed
> at the polls were plans to create a rainy day fund, improve education,
> borrow from the state lottery, and pay for children’s services and
> mental health. Only prop 1F, freezing legislator pay raises during
> deficit years, passed. The state now has to immediately cut spending
> by $21 billion by laying off 10,000 teachers, 5,000 other state workers,
> and shortening the school year by seven days. It will raid every
> city and county government for additional cash. The state will also
> release 20,000 non violent state prisoners and suspend maintenance
> and construction on thousands of projects. My home town high school
> is closing their sports and music programs. If the state’s latest
> round of $6.5 billion in bond issues did not carry federal government
> guarantees, they would have been wiped out in the market. No doubt
> our well tanned, Austrian immigrant governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
> who was in Washington DC for a CAFE photo op with Obama, will be
> sent back to the gym to pump iron sooner than he thinks.

May 31 02:17 PM

[notsosmart:]

its the same in my town of stamford,ct. the highest income goes to police overtime & 65% of the property tax goes to education & anybody that has the dough(wall st,bankers etc) send their kids to private school.our "wise" legislature is discussing home schooling via the net to try to curb the dropout rate.they should show "jaywalking" from the jay leno show to all educators.throwing money at this system is like throwing money at GM.

May 31 02:53 PM

[I-investor:]

This salary survey highlights the issue of the significant political power of City and County employee unions in California. State salaries are generally not so generous. The problem has come about with the mandatory political donations in the union payroll deductions. Basically, the money is such that the unions can hand select candidates and fully finance campaigns. An example of this is Contra Costa County where the employees managed to gain control of the majority of the board of supervisors. They passed a huge pension increase. Now as the budget shrinks, the supervisors cut departments which are not unionized like the District Attorney. In the Bay Area, SF, Oakland, Berkeley, BART, Ebmud, etc. are all controlled by the employee unions. This conflict of interest results in highly inefficient delivery of government services.

May 31 03:10 PM

[bbowen7:]

I-Investor has it right. California has spending problems with both efficiency and effectiveness. Unfortunately, the short term budget slaughter deals with the "effectiveness" side of thge equation, and does not deal with the wages and pensions of state/local employees. We can cut the number of teachers, but we cannot deal with the fact that they are paid 25% more than the national average.

May 31 04:41 PM