After a decade-long bender, economic reality has finally forced Montgomery County officials to confront the damage caused by their irresponsible spending. It's not a pretty sight.
A sobering report released by the county's Office of Legislative Oversight revealed that personnel costs increased 64 percent during the past 10 years. Compensation for Montgomery County employees now consumes 82 percent of all tax-supported spending in the county's $4.2 billion budget. And for every tax dollar the county spends on bloated salaries, it spends another 52 cents on benefits for those same employees. This is even more than the 51 cents the federal government spends on benefits for its employees -- and twice as much as is typically spent in the private sector.
For 10 years, county employees' compensation outpaced inflation and population growth by 20 percent. Most of the higher pay and benefits went to the public school system, which gobbles up more than half of all county revenue and employs two-thirds of its total work force.
Within five years, OLO warns, fully one-third of the entire budget will be spent to cover their health and pension benefits and the county's debt service -- instead of on the supposedly gold-plated services they provide.
The OLO report also warned that "one-time solutions are insufficient to resolve the problem," but real structural change is not even on the table.
This is madness. A council with any backbone -- or concern for the taxpayers who elected it to represent them -- would call the unions' bluff and immediately start privatizing large sections of the county's work force, not stopping until major concessions were made. After all, when taxpayers are forced to provide "public servants" with more lavish benefits than can be found in either the private sector or the federal government, there's no doubt about who are really the servants in Montgomery County.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
A sobering report released by the county's Office of Legislative Oversight revealed that personnel costs increased 64 percent during the past 10 years. Compensation for Montgomery County employees now consumes 82 percent of all tax-supported spending in the county's $4.2 billion budget. And for every tax dollar the county spends on bloated salaries, it spends another 52 cents on benefits for those same employees. This is even more than the 51 cents the federal government spends on benefits for its employees -- and twice as much as is typically spent in the private sector.
For 10 years, county employees' compensation outpaced inflation and population growth by 20 percent. Most of the higher pay and benefits went to the public school system, which gobbles up more than half of all county revenue and employs two-thirds of its total work force.
Within five years, OLO warns, fully one-third of the entire budget will be spent to cover their health and pension benefits and the county's debt service -- instead of on the supposedly gold-plated services they provide.
The OLO report also warned that "one-time solutions are insufficient to resolve the problem," but real structural change is not even on the table.
This is madness. A council with any backbone -- or concern for the taxpayers who elected it to represent them -- would call the unions' bluff and immediately start privatizing large sections of the county's work force, not stopping until major concessions were made. After all, when taxpayers are forced to provide "public servants" with more lavish benefits than can be found in either the private sector or the federal government, there's no doubt about who are really the servants in Montgomery County.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
4 comments:
They are NOT PUBLIC SERVANTS.....they are PUBLIC MASTERS. Government has been milking the public trough for years...look at the Postal Service (yeah, I know its a quasi-public agency)....they are going broke trying to keep up with retirees making $75,000 to $150,000 a year in RETIREMENT! John Q. Public is tired of subsidizing these PUBLIC MASTERS who retire at 55 yrs old and make more money in retirement than most citizens do working 40-60 hrs a week. With the infrastructure falling apart, "we, the people" are getting a bit fed up with the gravy train of government MASTERS.
This is exactly what I have been warning Wicomico politicos for a number of years now.
Here in Wicomico - as businesses exodus - the local & State governments step-in and buy-up the former private enterprise business sites. Then - they build multi-million dollar facilities and staff them with 50 - 100K staff.
It is a scenario that is a recipe for a disaster. The government has actively been expanding a phenomenal rate for more than 15 years now.
Look out folks - as it is not going to be pretty. We are essentially bankrupt.
Joe:
PLEASE do a similar study for Wicomico (but don't ask Memo Deriker to help or it will show that things are wonderful here).
This "structural deficit" (or whatever you want to call it) has existed at the State level ever since the Glendenning administration. Having the County AND the State on the same path of insolvency is double jeopardy.
Unfortunately, the Governor with 4 straight years of not submitting a (legitimate) balanced budge was just put back in office for another 4 years. The citizens have watched Mayors stealing gift cards and County Executives taking bribes and they still don't get it.
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