How many of you make $100,000 or $150,00 a year? In the last few weeks The Columbian has listed the pay decrease of 3 percent for the governor’s staff that averages $140,000; some firefighters are paid, with overtime, an average of $150,000; next comes our city manager, already making $170,000, gets a 1.5 percent pay raise, plus benefits.
Thinking of this, in Peter Callaghan’s Feb. 13 column, “Governments not yet ready to enter naming-rights arena,” our legislators are considering the benefits of giving corporations, for a fee, the right to advertise their corporate names on taxpayer-paid hardware.
The reason this consideration is being made is the state is cash-strapped. By selling naming rights, it will take in easy extra cash. Will the bureaucrats decrease the amount of spending? I believe, even with the extra cash, they’d still bring the state back to the same position, which means selling our highways, bridges, parks, etc., won’t fix anything.
Another Columbian story stated that government employees are 80 percent of its budget. Think that’s ever going to change?
