"Budget Nixes Pay Raises" - for the 9th year in a row. (I'd link, but you have to be a paid subscriber to read it...).
For the 9th straight year, OK State employees are not getting a pay raise, not even a COLA. Wages have stagnated here not because the economy is bad (it isn't) but because the Republicans have convinced the legislators that state employees are lazy grifters looking for a welfare hand out.
Never mind how hard the state employees work to make the state function to just well, but amazingly well.
Oklahoma has some of the finest state parks and lakes - so fine that many Texans prefer to come to Lake Murray, Lake Texhoma, Beavers Bend Lake, Turner Falls, Lake of the Arbuckles, and State Park, Hochatown Lake and State Park, and Hugo Lake. Visiting those lakes reveals more cars with Texas tags than Oklahoma tags - and it's not because Okies don't go to the lakes. I regularly go to Lake Thunderbird, Arcadia, Hefner, Overholser, and Stanley Draper - all of them are within 20 miles of my home.
And state employees maintain all these lakes and parks - with frozen wages for 9 years. That's lazy grifting for you, right there. Our lakes are clean, the paths are clear of debris, where there are restrooms, those are functioning and clean, and the visitor/information centers are clean and stocked for visitors, rangers and other employees are friendly and always ready to answer questions or help - even though they know that the person they are helping might believe they are lazy grifting thieves stealing tax dollars for so called wages, and might have clamored for the legislators to deny pay raises to them.
State employees handle essential records - voting, birth, death, driver's licensing, sales permits, business registrations, health records, zoning permits.
State employees educate our children.
State employees build and maintain our roads.
State employees maintain the computers that keep our state running smoothly - both hardware and software.
State employees patrol the highways to assist in accidents, provide roadside help, maintain traffic, provide safety education, and in other ways keep us safe state-wide.
State employees monitor the water supplies and air quality for our safety and well-being.
And more, much, much more.
Yep, lazy, thieving people, every one of 'em, stealing tax payer dollars to live high on the hog, buying Mercedes Benz and mink coats and 20 carat diamonds, dining on matsutake mushrooms, wagyu steaks, almas caviar, and dansuke watermelons, all washed down with copious cups of kopiluwak or a cheap Chateau d’Yquem 1811 (costing a mere $117,000 a bottle).
In reality, over half the state employees earn so little they qualify for food stamps and other welfare assistance - and they are being denied a raise for yet another year?
Oklahoma ranks 45th in income, with a poverty level of nearly 18% - 5 states earn less than we do, and I bet those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The average per capita income is $22,000 a year for a full time employee (I make a bit less than that as a state employee as state employees earn less than private company employees for full time equivalent work).
We have a state income tax as well as assorted sales taxes, property taxes have increased, and the state coffers are doing quite well, yet the mindset continues to be stuck on the idea that state employees are lazy and undeserving of a fair wage.
Mind you - the lowest paid state legislator receives nearly $39,000 a year plus $8,000 per diem for working 3.5 days a week when the legislature is in session (a few work the full 4 days). For working part time, they receive nearly double the average full time employee's per capita income. The Legislature has not endured budget cuts, layoffs, or any other austerity measures.
So, right, stick it to the state employees, who work really, really hard to make sure your life is as comfortable as they can manage given the wage freeze, budget cuts, and lay-offs they work around - cheerfully, dedicatedly, and efficiently.