On the heels of more than $1 billion in tax and fee hikes just signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter, legislative Republicans say they are dismayed at a report this week showing pay in the state bureaucracy markedly outstrips that of the private sector. The GOP lawmakers say news of a plumped-up state pay scale--alongside the addition of some 4,400 positions to the state payroll since 2007--is a slap in the face to the many Coloradans who face widespread layoffs and lean family budgets amid a spiraling recession.
The revelation also has Republicans pointing to a legislative budget debate only weeks ago in which the GOP had called unsuccessfully on ruling Democrats to make the bureaucracy bear more of the burden of budget cuts. Republican lawmakers further note the irony of how the Ritter administration has opened the door wide to
Read audit of state government employee pay |
labor unions to organize state employees--despite the fact they they already seem to be doing well.
"Talk about misplaced priorities. At a time when just about every other chief executive in the country is trying to create real jobs, Bill Ritter is building bureaucracy," said Senate Republican Whip Nancy Spence, of Centennial. "Times are tough, and it's hard to justify generous government salaries when the rest of the public is facing widespread layoffs--and also being forced to pick up the tab through higher taxes and fees."
An audit of the state's personnel system released Monday shows state employees average 6 percent more pay than those who do the same jobs in the private sector or even for other governments. As reported in the Denver Post, the audit also found that state workers in some categories make as much as 16 percent more than the market average for the same positions.
|
Sen. Nancy Spence |
Republicans say that is all the more troubling in the wake of the new taxes and fees pushed through by Democrats and Ritter to bridge a budget gap caused by plummeting tax revenue. Those hikes--from sweeping increases in auto-registration fees to a tripling of the cost of a marriage license--will now effectively help pay for the state employee salaries that are being called into question.
"It's as if this governor's only constituency were state employees. Well, at least, he's serving them well," said Colorado Springs Republican Sen. Keith King. "Too bad that leaves out millions of other Coloradans, too many of whom are losing jobs and even their homes."
At issue, say some lawmakers, is not so much the value added by state workers as simply the sheer cost of the state's payroll for taxpayers in a slumping economy.
"If state workers outearn their private-sector counterparts by 6 percent, it's of course a fair question whether they outperform them by that much," said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, a Broomfield Republican. "Yet, even if they do, the rest of the public cannot be expected to sustain higher salaries for state workers than they receive themselves to support their own families in these tight times ."
Republicans say the audit data casts even more doubt on the wisdom of Ritter's controversial, 2007 exectuive order granting unions collective-bargaining power for state government employees.
"At a time when private businesses across the state are having to lay off people left and right, this governor is growing both the pay scale and the sheer size of the bureaucracy," said Highlands Ranch Republican Sen. Ted Harvey. "In light of these audit findings, it is unconscionable that the governor sought to reward union bosses with collective bargaining power. Our state employees already are being rewarded quite well for their efforts."
GOP legislators say it all comes as another blow to taxpayers already reeling not only from the recession but also from the massive new tab handed to them by the Ritter administration to maintain state government spending. The toll includes:
- A $250 million-a-year hike in vehicle-registration fees--ostensibly to fund transportation--with the price of registering the typical family car going up $30 to $40.
- A $600 million-a-year fee imposed on the state's hospitals in an attempt to leverage more federal Medicaid funding for the poor; Republicans said the ripple effects are sure to trickle down through higher health-plan premiums for everyone else.
- A $90 million jump in property taxes for seniors, who will lose their homestead exemption.
- An increase in the amount of sales-tax revenue retailers will have to forward to the state, costing small businesses and other stores another $31 million a year.
- A hike in the tax on capital gains on some Colorado investments, costing businesses and investors $7 million the first year and $16 million the next.
- Democats also voted to remove the sales-tax exemption on already-heavily taxed cigarettes--claiming another $30 million.