Excessive pay for government employees

At a time when most local government are facing budget problems, the overtime pay for government employees rose to ridiculous lofty heights. Ohio paid out more than $124 million in overtime last year. This only serves to underscore the terrible mismanagement of resources caused by government power. In related news, Toledo's city council failed to increase the taxes of 19,000 people who live in Toledo and work outside the city. So now, the combative mayor is laying off 75 city policeman instead. Just a couple years ago, Toledo policemen were paid over 3.5 million in overtime money. I'm sure it's a lot more now, probably at least $5 million. See this.

Perhaps what we should do is limit all government pay to the median local income. There is absolutely no reason why government employees should make a dime more than those they are supposed to serve. If there are so many people who believe that government is good, there should still be plenty of volunteers who would take the job. It is well known that they enjoy generous compensation and benefits, and getting rid of these would save millions of dollars locally and statewide.

Toledo's mayor Finkbeiner is paid $136,000. Toledo's median income for males as of the year 2000 was $35,407. Dropping the mayor's income to this level would save city taxpayers about $100,000. The average annual salary for a three year Toledo Police officer is $53,657 not including overtime pay or benefits. There are currently 628 police officers employed by the city. At these levels, which are probably pretty low, cutting their salary to the city's average would save taxpayers at least $11,461,000 per year... and a LOT more once their overtime is taken away.

We can no longer afford to sit by while government bureaucrats waste our money on thier own inflated salaries. The benefits we get from having a government (if any) are far less than what these people earn. Important resources are taken from the productive class and siphoned off to the political class, extremely hampering our economic well being. Things will only get worse unless we are successful in taking back our freedom. This would also make existing budget problems disappear.