Be Careful With Those Tax Dollars
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
I generally admire people who decide to run for elected office.
It's a pretty thankless job, after all. It's probably like being in the business of writing opinion.
If you make somebody happy, most times you are simultaneously making someone mad.
I think the world would be a better place if more people took their civic duty seriously and at least voted, let alone run for office.
It's been my job to watch the actions of elected officials at the local, small-town level for a long time.
And one thing I have consistently noticed is what I like to call the Taj-Mahal syndrome.
That's the syndrome that says when it's tax dollars at work, only the best will do.
I have seen lots of times when local governments have appeared to squander the tax dollars of the constituents they are charged to serve.
Seems like anytime we build public buildings, the per square foot costs are two or three times the per square foot costs of private or commercial construction.
I understand there are guidelines that must be followed and I understand the concept of prevailing wages that public entities must follow.
But at the same time, I never seem to see any public entities trying to cut costs when it comes to construction or supplies.
And I notice simple little things. Like when cops get new guns. Those things are expensive and it seems like cops everywhereÊare always upgrading.
I bet there isn't a cop alive who has ever actually worn out a gun. I know a little bit about guns. I used to be in a pistol club. (OK, liberals, hang the gun nut label on me.)
And I can tell you that I saw very serviceable 1911-A1 model Colt .45s that had literally tens of thousands of rounds run through them. Those guns still shot straighter than most guys could aim them.
And firetrucks?
How in the world do you wear out a firetruck?
Recently, a town in our circulation area bought a new firetruck to replace the old worn-out model.
The new one cost $190,000.
The worn-out one was 20 years old and had 8,000 miles on it.
OK, my car is 14 years old and has 120,000 miles on it and I think that's low mileage for a 1991.
I understand that fire trucks must be in good working order because there is the potential for them to save lives, but how do you wear out a big, heavy-duty truck in 8,000 miles?
Seems like health insurance falls into this realm as well.
Recently we had a story about the city of Warsaw's health insurance. They're trying to save money - God bless them - by increasing premiums and deductibles and such.
Currently, a single city employee pays $1 per month for city health insurance and has a $100 deductible.
Families pay $15 a month and have a $300 deductible.
One question: Who in the world aside from somebody on the tax dole has a health plan that deluxe?
And then come to find that our city council members are on the plan despite the fact that they all have health insurance available somewhere else.
They get paid, too. Not a lot - about $5,000 each per year - but health insurance? I suppose it's to entice prospective council members to public service, but if you run for office for the health insurance, you're running for the wrong reason.
Of course, the biggest tax bite comes from schools, and we really shouldn't scrimp too much when it comes to the education of our children.
It's important.
But I think the administrators of Warsaw Community Schools this past week missed a real good opportunity to foster good will among the taxpayers who pony up their salaries.
They could have foregone that 4 percent salary increase.
Without doing a great deal of study on the topic, I'll go out on a limb and say that Warsaw's administrative salaries are not out of line when compared to other school systems.
But it's not like they're underpaid, either.
Take elementary school principals. They make $83,000 per year. Well, not really. Their year is a little shorter than yours and mine.
Their contract is for 215 days per year. That comes out to about $386 a day or $48.25 an hour. There are 260 or 261 work days in a year. Hey, 50 bucks an hour and 45 days vacation ain't so bad.
So I guess it was a bit disappointing for me to see powers that be at Warsaw schools take another 4 percent for themselves when we just closed three elementaries to save the corporation money.
The net savings from closing the schools was supposed to be around $300,000.
(I can't say that with a great degree of certainty because the administration never really spelled it out.)
The net cost of the 4 percent administrative salary increase was $120,000. That's a big swing. Could have been $420,000 in savings instead of $180,000.
Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge educators competitive salaries.
I just think it would have been a really nice gesture to Warsaw school district taxpayers - given the recent controversy over the apparent need for cost containment - to forego those raises.
I bet those principals could have made it on $79,800 for another year. [[In-content Ad]]
I generally admire people who decide to run for elected office.
It's a pretty thankless job, after all. It's probably like being in the business of writing opinion.
If you make somebody happy, most times you are simultaneously making someone mad.
I think the world would be a better place if more people took their civic duty seriously and at least voted, let alone run for office.
It's been my job to watch the actions of elected officials at the local, small-town level for a long time.
And one thing I have consistently noticed is what I like to call the Taj-Mahal syndrome.
That's the syndrome that says when it's tax dollars at work, only the best will do.
I have seen lots of times when local governments have appeared to squander the tax dollars of the constituents they are charged to serve.
Seems like anytime we build public buildings, the per square foot costs are two or three times the per square foot costs of private or commercial construction.
I understand there are guidelines that must be followed and I understand the concept of prevailing wages that public entities must follow.
But at the same time, I never seem to see any public entities trying to cut costs when it comes to construction or supplies.
And I notice simple little things. Like when cops get new guns. Those things are expensive and it seems like cops everywhereÊare always upgrading.
I bet there isn't a cop alive who has ever actually worn out a gun. I know a little bit about guns. I used to be in a pistol club. (OK, liberals, hang the gun nut label on me.)
And I can tell you that I saw very serviceable 1911-A1 model Colt .45s that had literally tens of thousands of rounds run through them. Those guns still shot straighter than most guys could aim them.
And firetrucks?
How in the world do you wear out a firetruck?
Recently, a town in our circulation area bought a new firetruck to replace the old worn-out model.
The new one cost $190,000.
The worn-out one was 20 years old and had 8,000 miles on it.
OK, my car is 14 years old and has 120,000 miles on it and I think that's low mileage for a 1991.
I understand that fire trucks must be in good working order because there is the potential for them to save lives, but how do you wear out a big, heavy-duty truck in 8,000 miles?
Seems like health insurance falls into this realm as well.
Recently we had a story about the city of Warsaw's health insurance. They're trying to save money - God bless them - by increasing premiums and deductibles and such.
Currently, a single city employee pays $1 per month for city health insurance and has a $100 deductible.
Families pay $15 a month and have a $300 deductible.
One question: Who in the world aside from somebody on the tax dole has a health plan that deluxe?
And then come to find that our city council members are on the plan despite the fact that they all have health insurance available somewhere else.
They get paid, too. Not a lot - about $5,000 each per year - but health insurance? I suppose it's to entice prospective council members to public service, but if you run for office for the health insurance, you're running for the wrong reason.
Of course, the biggest tax bite comes from schools, and we really shouldn't scrimp too much when it comes to the education of our children.
It's important.
But I think the administrators of Warsaw Community Schools this past week missed a real good opportunity to foster good will among the taxpayers who pony up their salaries.
They could have foregone that 4 percent salary increase.
Without doing a great deal of study on the topic, I'll go out on a limb and say that Warsaw's administrative salaries are not out of line when compared to other school systems.
But it's not like they're underpaid, either.
Take elementary school principals. They make $83,000 per year. Well, not really. Their year is a little shorter than yours and mine.
Their contract is for 215 days per year. That comes out to about $386 a day or $48.25 an hour. There are 260 or 261 work days in a year. Hey, 50 bucks an hour and 45 days vacation ain't so bad.
So I guess it was a bit disappointing for me to see powers that be at Warsaw schools take another 4 percent for themselves when we just closed three elementaries to save the corporation money.
The net savings from closing the schools was supposed to be around $300,000.
(I can't say that with a great degree of certainty because the administration never really spelled it out.)
The net cost of the 4 percent administrative salary increase was $120,000. That's a big swing. Could have been $420,000 in savings instead of $180,000.
Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge educators competitive salaries.
I just think it would have been a really nice gesture to Warsaw school district taxpayers - given the recent controversy over the apparent need for cost containment - to forego those raises.
I bet those principals could have made it on $79,800 for another year. [[In-content Ad]]