A new report on local government payrolls focused on special districts, most of which operate below the radar screen and therefore without much public attention on their decision-making.
But many of the districts have had special taxes passed because the agencies warned voters they would have to chop public services if they didn’t receive augmented funding.
Transparent California, a statewide website focused on public payrolls, wants the public to know that a large and growing part of those budget decisions is the public agencies’ payrolls and that the salaries that are being paid translate into legacy pension costs.
The report, prepared with the help of the Marin-based Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans, looks at 20 Marin special districts, from fire agencies to sewer districts. Its review showed that the average annual salary is $108,000, more than the average paychecks handed out to county workers, Marin’s largest employer. Pensions and other benefits raised the districts’ average pay to $153,204, according to the group’s accounting.
The report calls this sum “shocking,” but it should be noted that officials maintain the pay levels are in keeping with those needed to recruit and retain workers in the high-priced Bay Area market.
It is important that taxpayers know how their public business is being conducted by these agencies, not just that the sewers work and firefighters respond to emergencies. They should be able to find out how their tax dollars are being spent.
At one time, payroll details were tightly guarded by many public agencies. When the county refused to detail its payroll, the IJ took legal action that eventually led to public access to these important figures.
The 2010 scandal in Bell, where top executives and elected council members were found to be paying themselves huge salaries, eventually forced open these once-locked books.
The cost of these payrolls is a big slice of the budget. In particular, the promises these agencies have made to their workers in terms of pensions are based on those salaries. When today’s paychecks rise, so do future pension checks.
That’s fair, and promises should be kept. But public agencies should be upfront about the short- and long-term costs.
Long-term pension obligations have contributed to cutbacks in public projects and services, layoffs and increased taxes during the recession.
The crisis and taxpayers’ criticism led the state Legislature to make some cost-saving changes to future pension benefits in 2012. It was a start, but little has been done to work toward more cost-saving changes.
The county, to its credit, has taken steps to curtail the practice of spiking, where workers get pay raises, build up overtime pay and unused vacation and sick time to maximize their final paychecks, on which their monthly pension payments are based.
Overtime pay and unused vacation and sick pay are not factors in setting pensions for county employees. It is not right to allow, if not promote, the 11th-hour gaming of the system, at the long-term expense of taxpayers.
While pension benefits are an important promise made to workers, they have been a rising cost.
When many of these agencies go to voters seeking special taxes, they usually don’t mention their pension costs as a factor for needing more money. They say they need the tax revenue to pave streets, maintain fire and police protection, keep paramedics rolling to emergencies, to pay for emergency radios and fix up parks.
CSPP wants taxpayers to know that there are important details — a budget-driving force — that are usually not mentioned in those glossy campaign brochures.
Taxpayers might not have a problem with local public pay scales and pension benefits, but they should, at least, know the figures. The review of Marin’s special districts provides those.
