Tag: taxpayers are suckers

Highest Paid City Workers Got Raises Of Over 4.2% For New Fiscal Year – 34% HIGHER Than The 3.2% Social Security COLA.

I remember not too many months ago, I was given an explanation for why City council felt that everyone with a pulse who worked for the City deserved a raise of “between 4% and 5%.” The reason given was that social security COLAs were going to be going up by about that amount. So it seemed fair.

[Ignore for a moment that for the already-overpaid Nerf job holders at the very top making six figures, a 4.5% increase is a much bigger chunk of change than it is for the poor schlub who actually goes out there and turns a wrench or fixes downed power lines. ALSO ignore all the huge raises that were given in years past when inflation was close to zero]

As it turns out, social security will only be giving a 3.2% increase next year:

Social Security Benefits Increase in 2024

So if they decided on 4% raises, we are looking at being 25% more generous to City Big Wigs. But it turns out, the raises were even more generous than that.

SALARIES: FAT and ALWAYS going UP:

Stacey Ybarra: has been with the City less than a year. Has failed to find a tenant for the Business Park. She saw a pay increase of 4.2%– her salary goes from $85,000 up to $89,280, according to paystubs I obtained. This is 31% more generous than social security.

Ryan Ward: has been with the City less than two years. Started out at $110,000, which was ALREADY $25,000 higher than the average for an ASSISTANT City Manager nationwide. Has already been given a COLA last year. His salary is now $126,243 – an increase of 4.3% over last fiscal yearand a total increase of 14.5% in just 21 months This is 34% more generous than social security.

Jody Cummings: Ryan Ward told us last year (May 2022) that our police chief was overpaid by 7.9% – but that didn’t stop him from getting an even bigger raise than Ybarra or Ward for this fiscal year…

Librarian overpaid by 11.2% and police chief overpaid by 7.9%

According to paystubs obtained from the City, Cummings will see his salary increase from $103,220up to $107,874 – an increase of 4.5%. This is FORTY PERCENT more generous than social security. Oh, and the police chief of Burnet “only” pulls down $73,544…

BENEFITS: FAT and always GOING UP:

This does not even consider benefits. The City’s gold-plated health insurance premiums jumped 13% this year. City employees only pay a small fraction of that cost. As I have shown previously,someone with a health plan that costs $1,548 PER MONTH is only required to pay $438 out of their own pocket.

That is a HUGE benefit, as those of us out here in the real world know. I know my health insurance just jumped 15% yet again this year…and I get to pay the whole thing myself.

JOB SECURITY: you are GUARANTEED your job for as long as you want:

Did I mention that it is basically impossible to get fired from a City job? DeGraffenreid, Ward, Ybarra, Cummings, Wright, Acevedo, Moreno – they can stay as long as they like. There will NEVER be the shock of losing your job in a bad economy. They will be there until they decide they want to retire – and they will get a 4% to 5% increase in their salaries AND benefits for the rest of their careers – regardless of performance.

Must be nice! We’ll revisit all of this next year when the U.S. economy is deep in the shitter and people in the real world are being laid off left and right.

The Same City Crying Poor and Begging For Federal Money Also Recommends $250,000 In Raises For City Employees

You gotta love government ‘logic’.

One week, Mandy Walsh (salary + benefits of over $100,000 per year) is getting City council to vote unanimously to submit an application for the LEDC stating that the City was SO ‘economically injured’ by Wuhan Flu that they need almost $1 million in free money to waste on their pet boondoggle (the ill-fated ‘business’ park).

The NEXT week, City Manager Finley deGraffenreid (salary + benefits of roughly $180,000) has the balls to stand up and tell City council he recommends they use the “budget surplus” (his exact words at the 30:25 mark) to give everyone in City government a 3% raise. Which would “be a burden to the City of about $195,000“, according to him. [*** see below***]

He also says that we need some other “market adjustments” (Finley-speak for more raises) of around $50,000 for other employees. Bringing the total to very close to a quarter of a million dollars ($245,000).

Remember – that $250,000 is forever. They don’t take it back next year. It is a brand new, forever-more burden on the taxpayers.

Here’s a thought for City council to ponder:

If the ‘business’ park project is SO awesome and SO important and will result in many new high-paying jobs and so much ‘economic development’, wouldn’t it make FAR more sense to take that $250,000 raise and instead funnel it towards your precious ‘business’ park project? In a short four years, you have your million dollars!

Why are you INSTEAD giving raises to City employees who are ALREADY well-paid? City employees who HAD ABSOLUTE and COMPLETE job security during a ‘pandemic’ that has thrown tens of millions of private sector workers onto the unemployment rolls!

Oh – and who ALSO have top-notch health care plans (those pesky benefits!) in case they DO catch the Wuhan Flu!

Wouldn’t that make a LOT more sense? Yes. Yes it would.

*** Some super hard math for the likes of TJ Monroe ***

*** This implies a current City payroll of $6,500,000.00 since 195,000/0.03 = $6.5 million.

*** Finley has also stated in the past that benefits [retirement + health insurance + other] run roughly FORTY PERCENT of salaries. So the NEW total burden to the taxpayer just for City employee salaries and benefits would be roughly $9.443 million dollars every year

$6.5 million x 1.03 for the new 3% increase PLUS $50,000 = $6,745,000

$6,745,000 x 1.40 = $9,443,000 total salary + benefits burden for new budget

If I am very generous and assume the current number of City employees is 110, that gives us a salary + benefits burden to the taxpayer of $85,845 PER EMPLOYEE.

Yes – you are reading that correctly. Each and every City employee is costing YOU the taxpayer (on average) approximately $85,845 in salary and benefits. I’m guessing that over 90% of people in this town make far LESS than that in their private sector job.