Jeff Azlin: Huge pay raises demonstrate what’s wrong with government

Re “School officials get big raises” (Page A1, March 22): The headline once again illustrates what is wrong with all levels of government. Every government entity strictly deals in Other People’s Money (OPM) and their constant refrain of “we have to give out the big raises to already generous salaries and benefits in order to attract or retain the best people” flies in the face of good stewardship of that OPM. These higher costs live on for many years in the form of higher pensions, especially when a retiring administrator gets to spike his salary. How did this spiking either retain or attract the best person for the job? It didn’t. It was simply a giveaway with a wink and a nod.

My point is simple, OPM makes it all too easy for the government managers to take care of themselves and leave the people who actually do the work with 0.5 percent raises, which they want to call generous. For a teacher making $70,000, that would translate to $350 or $6.73 per week before taxes. Compare that to Changnon’s approximate $385 per week raise. Don’t spend it all in one place.

This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Jeff Azlin: Huge pay raises demonstrate what’s wrong with government."