No, it's not because I don't agree with the basic sentiment, though I might take it a step further and suggest that the public employees might be forced to take a pay CUT; because, after all, when we as a community suffer, they should share that experience with us.
That is not to say that I don't get that such efforts might result in, GASP, lawsuits. After all, four scumbag state employee unions are suing the Governor now to make sure they can still pig out at the trough... since the very idea that the terrible economy we're all sharing shouldn't have any effect on those here to serve US... is out of the question. After all, they're SPECIAL.
No, the irony here is that this short-sighted rag of a newspaper shilled mightily and hard for the gerrymandered C-Trans election, where over 50,000 voters eligible to pay these clowns had no say in jacking up our taxes to do it.
And now, these idiots are complaining?
Gee, just think: had this waste of a media outlet given some foresight to this issue back when it mattered, we might not have to be dealing with the issue now.
So, to that end, I say: Right on, C-Trans! Stick it to us! Take every frickin nickle you can squeeze out of us!
After all, this very whining, sniveling newspaper wouldn't have had it any other way.. back when it mattered.
In our view Jan. 22: Freeze Public Pay
Some government agencies still don’t get it: In tough times, salary increases are out of line
Thursday, January 22 1:00 a.m.
Here we go again. With so many of us losing our jobs and so many more of us not getting raises, we see that C-Tran workers will be getting up to a 4 percent cost-of-living raise. A few weeks ago we saw that Vancouver Police officers were getting 5.1 percent raises.
See a pattern here? While the private sector grinds through a debilitating recession, it’s business as usual for many government workers, likely because they’re able to keep coming back to the public money troughs. We don’t begrudge workers’ accepting raises, but government agencies can no longer afford to decouple personnel decisions (raises) from continued cries for tax increases and increased fees.
And what makes C-Tran’s situation even more troubling is that the board approved 3.6 percent raises for managers, which flies in the face of what is happening in many other areas of government. Clark County commissioners have frozen pay for managers. So have Vancouver city officials. That same trend is seen at state and national levels. In his first day on the job, President Barack Obama announced, “I am instituting a pay freeze on the salaries of my senior White House staff.”
Unfortunately, these freezes on government pay are too few and too far between; apparently the C-Tran board didn’t get the memo.
C-Tran’s raises are especially perturbing to passengers, who on March 1 will see fares increase 15 percent. A monthly pass will rise 16 percent, and C-Van service for the disabled will double from $23 per month to $46. Yes, as we’ve argued before, under the user-pay theory, C-Tran passengers should provide more than just the current 21 percent of C-Tran’s revenue. For that reason, fare increases can be justified. But this isn’t about fare increases; it’s about increasing public salaries while you’re socking it to the customers, during the nation’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.
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