When my old fishin’ buddy Ken Dixon and I were young scribes–20 then, we’re 60 now, don’t tell anyone okay?–we barely had enough gas in the tank to reach our suburban watering holes to drop a line. No pagers, no cell phones, no Uber drivers those days (although we coulda used one on occasion). Coming home with a trout in a frying pan was glory. Since those days Ken’s figured out bigger fish to fry: Connecticut’s public employees that make his annual salary porn.
From my old fishin’ buddy’s rite of passage:
And the winner is …
Vincent Mauro, chief of staff for Senate Democrats, is this year’s winner in the list of salaries for legislative and non-partisan staff, coming in at $174,585.
The breakdown, released to Hearst Connecticut Media under the terms of the state Freedom of Information Act, has salary information for more than 400 State Capitol employees, including about 100 who make more than $100,000 a year. Mauro’s pay just edges out his office mate Joel Rudikoff, the caucus’ veteran analyst, checking in at $172,010.
Full story here.
The word ‘porn’ stood out to me in the OIB heading above.It’s a Dixon word likely, but without explanation further, I will guess that it is a comment on large salaries others receive. Of course you may show me a listing for a year, and tell me whether any of the folks has overtime included, or longevity pay, or whatever creative terms have been used in the past and are still present that support government employee pay.To become outraged you might need to show the fringe benefits that accompany the pay level and whether the retirement benefits, income and OPEB are currently funded in the budget. And if you hold all the expenses of employing any one State emloyee, or group of same in one hand and in the other hand, their cumulative work product, and attempting to weigh the values for balance? Anybody happy?
There are numbers out there that submit to FOI requests. And there are basic, and I imagine, more sophisticated tools to compare numbers when the data is organized in a specific way. But when the Finance Department in Bridgeport is too comfortable in issuing reports in a manner difficult to place under a microscope, or when that same Department NOW lets us know that the Open Checkbook budget program in Bridgeport costing the City $24,000 PER YEAR does not include the Capital Budget funds borrowed accounts. Why not? The State includes those amounts distributed annually from borrowed funds. In the current City operating budget there are only a handful of departments where the Operational Expenses or Special Services are greater than Personnel Services of all kinds and Fringe Benefits. (These include City Attorney, Information Technology, Municipal Garage, Facilities Maintenance, Sanitation, Transfer Station, Golf Course, OPED Administration, Lighthouse and Social Services.) Why didn’t we get the full package? How many hits per year are we getting? A little evaluation Ken Flatto? Time will tell.