D.C. Metro shows that not all public sector workers are created the same
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The following was originally published at washingtonexaminer.com:
As the first week of May comes to a close, so does the 25th anniversary of Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW). In case you missed it, PRSW is a nationwide education effort aimed at honoring our country’s public workers.
President Obama wrote about PSRW saying, “[public workers] dedication and expertise is vital to our nation...Each day they provide essential services that protect us from harm, educate our families, and keep us healthy.”
Although the description put forth by Obama elicits images of the selfless teacher who works late into the evenings or a courageous police officer who regularly puts his life on the line, these portraits of civil service have been obscured by the every-growing number of public sector employees.
Many jobs that were once thought to be best left in the hand of private business are now under the control of federal or state governments. The recent economic downturn illuminates this trend towards centralization. Since Feb. 17, when the stimulus package was signed into law, 3.3 million jobs have been lost, but 67,000 federal civilian employees have been added to the government payroll.
So while many government employees provide essential services, a substantial number of the 3 million and 20 million local and state government workers have simply supplanted private sector jobs. These numbers are imperative to understand because the growing morass of government employees will make it harder for America’s leaders to balance federal, state, and local budgets.
Although public employees earn $11,091 more in wages and $30,000 more in benefits than private sector workers in the same profession, politicians rarely freeze wages or layoff unnecessary workers for fear that their decision might hurt them at the ballot box, many public employees are unionized. In fact, for the first time in history, 51 percent of all union members work for the government on some level – county, state or federal.
Politicians have struck an unspoken quid pro quo deal with public sector workers – financial benefits in exchange for votes.
To see how unions, politicians, and public sector workers have joined forces to hijack local agendas, readers need look no further than Washington D.C.’s Metro system, WMATA. Despite receiving $202 million during last year’s stimulus free-for-all and issuing a 10 cent fare hike last February, WMATA still faces an estimated $189 million shortfall by next year’s budget.
In fact, last year, during the peak of the recession, unionized Metro employees received a $44 million raise while unemployment edged towards double digits. Metro worker’s wage increase was not unique, since the recession began in 2007, public worker’s pay has risen 7.8 percent.
So, a year later, after millions of dollars have been funneled to WMATA and customers subjected to fare hikes, has service improved? On April 29 last year when I last wrote on these pages about WMATA there were fifty three escalators outages, and nine unexpected service disruptions.
One year later, there were 63 escalator outages and 14 disruptions. Not only have service conditions not improved with increased government support, they have gotten worse! WMATA’s inability to improve service is indicative of a larger failure of public sector entities to return to fiscal solvency.
Now, as we look back on Public Service Recognition Week, shake your local firefighter’s hand – but remember, not all public sector workers were created equal.
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