Awash in a $97.5-billion surplus that surpasses the entire budget of almost every other state, California officials obviously are not spending much time with a sharpened pencil, trying to whittle away unnecessary spending items. Local governments are doing surprisingly well, also, with Los Angeles County recently passing a $38.5-billion plan.
So it’s unlikely that policy makers will do anything more than shrug at the news, reported by a watchdog group called OpenTheBooks, that the county pays its top-earning lifeguard a total compensation package of $510,000 a year. That pay includes a $150,000 base salary, plus $85,000 in benefits and an inconceivable $246,000 in overtime pay.
California “public safety” agencies, including police and especially firefighters, have created a system that purposefully maximizes benefits and overtime pay. Base pay levels seem modest, but lifeguards (and others in the safety categories) receive generous taxpayer-backed pensions. Los Angeles lifeguards can retire at age 55 with around 80% of their final years’ pay.
In Orange County, public-safety employees — lifeguards, firefighters, sheriffs’ deputies — receive the more-generous “3% at 50” pension formula, which allows them to retire at age 50 with 90% of the average of their three final years’ pay. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System still allows some pension-spiking gimmicks.
That half-million-dollar a year “lifeguard captain” isn’t an aberration — and these pay levels are far higher than they were two years ago. OpenTheBooks “found 98 lifeguards earned at least $200,000 including benefits last year, and 20 made between $300,000 and $510,283. Thirty-seven lifeguards made between $50,000 and $247,000 in overtime alone.”
Under pressure from public-employee unions, California lawmakers have turned well-paying middle-class jobs into CEO-level positions. For comparison, Miami Beach, Fla., is likewise a wealthy tourist-oriented beach community, yet the city pays its lifeguards $26 an hour — and that’s 13% above the national average. Miami pays a highly skilled ocean-rescue lifeguard $41,000 a year plus benefits.
We recommend readers visit Transparent California, a website that posts the latest salary and benefit information about California’s public employees. Taxpayers pay their compensation, and are on the hook for pension shortfalls, so they ought to know where their money goes.
Type in the term “fire captain” and you’ll find a long list of employees earning $500,000 to $679,000 year. You’ll find a “deputy chief DA investigator” in Ventura County who earned $1.1 million, a state correctional sergeant who made $983,000, a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff who earned $712,000 last year, and a Milpitas math teacher who received $296,000. Again, these are not aberrations.
One of the reasons California’s governmental budgets are in overflowing with cash is because voters continue to approve tax increases to fund such things. As the California Policy Center explained, “Over the past four November elections, voters have approved $60.6 billion in local school bonds, another $9.4 billion in general obligation bonds, and at least $5.2 billion in annual tax increases.” Be aware of how these agencies are spending your tax money.
During a recession, lawmakers at least try to examine some of their indefensible spending and reduce long-term liabilities. When governments are awash in cash, however, no one seems to care about wasteful spending. Perhaps the latest news will remind us about the shocking ways California governments really spend our money.
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