Last week’s column compared Cook County commissioner compensation with six other counties included in the Iron Range Fiscal Disparities program (excluding St. Louis). It was disclosed that Cook County commissioners’ total compensation and benefits came in third highest among these counties; despite the fact that Cook County has the smallest population and smallest annual budget among these counties.
It was also noted that approximately 40 percent of Cook County’s residents make less than what our county commissioners make!
According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) the average weekly wage among Cook County’s private sector, during the second quarter of 2019, was $612 … down $10 a week from a year ago. Commissioners’ average weekly compensation, on the other hand, worked out to be $848 (38.56 percent higher)!
Paul Conner, senior editor at Fox Business Network contends, “Government pays bureaucrats 32 percent more than private sector workers earn.” Conner goes on to say, “Government workers get about twice the amount of benefits–such as paid leave, health insurance and retirement savings– as private-sector workers, based on Department of Labor data.”
There are Cook County commissioners, however, who will try to convince you they are smarter than you and, therefore, they deserve to make more than you. Call it the Dunning-Kruger effect: a type of subconscious bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are.
Then there are those, like Commissioner Dave Mills who claim “Current salaries for the county board restricts who is able to serve as a county commissioner,” asserting, “certain counties set their pay scale so that only wealthy business owners can run for local office.”
Huh?
What ever happened to the concept of people who run for political office seeing themselves as “public servants”? After all, they are supposedly in office to serve the good of the public and not themselves. Let’s face it, the present discourse is nothing more than superficial posturing.
It’s regrettably predictable. It’s the kind of subterfuge we’ve come to expect from this group who are constantly on the prowl for ways to pick the pocket of those “pesky” taxpayers.
Let’s move on …
This week, I decided to compare 14 of the 22 counties that were selected for Cook County’s Compensation Study completed in 2017. The reason I didn’t include all 22 counties was simply due to time constraints and, actually, four of the counties, that are not included, have populations that are under 5,000. I made an attempt to gather information from all but one of the other four counties but, at the time this column had to go to press, I had not received callbacks.
Let’s just say, “That’s the difference taxpayers get when they elect ‘public servants’!”
Compensation, including benefits, for all 14 counties surveyed, fell a minimum of $4,539 below what Cook County taxpayers pay our commissioners.
As the chart indicates, one of the counties included in the compensation study was Rock County (SW corner of the state). I happened to come across a 2010 article in their local newspaper–The Daily Globe–that sparked hope. Rock County Administrator Kyle Oldre mentioned that “Rock County commissioners opted not to give themselves a raise for the coming year [2011].”
Oldre added, ”I’ve got a good percentage of commissioners who don’t turn in any per diem pay requests. They don’t want to collect any more taxpayer dollars than they have to–especially during challenging economic times.”
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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