Taxes: Weighing the Wages of Civil Servants

I want to congratulate La Mirada City Manager Gary Sloan for not accepting a pay raise. He responsibly believes that $106,000 per year is ample compensation for any government worker.

Declining a pay raise while asking for pay hikes for the people under him was a truly noble and surprising gesture by Sloan. However, no raises for anyone would have been the only true fiscally responsible decision.

It also is mystifying that City Council members would offer a 4% raise for city employees after Sloan requested a 3% raise. Are the City Council members going to make up the 1% difference from their own pockets? Of course not. The taxpayers will.

Another major concern is the City Council’s going into closed session when it concerns pay raises/tax dollars. What’s to hide?

There are some who say that since the City Council members are elected by the residents to represent them, the decisions they ultimately make reflect their constituents’ views. Nonsense.

In La Mirada, the most popular people win, like some high school student body election; then citizens fall asleep, don’t attend council meetings, and have no idea how their tax dollars are blown and misused.

If, once a month, Sloan and the city employees had to go around to the homes of the citizens of La Mirada to collect their pay--say, like paper carriers used to--do you think that most citizens would gladly give a pay raise? Don’t kid yourself.

The only way government throughout the whole country has become bloated is because people are used to having their taxes taken out of their paychecks, so they don’t feel the loss tangibly. If people received 100% of their wages and then paid their taxes to tax collectors at their front doors, we would finally have the tax rebellion the country so richly needs.

There are some who say that La Mirada city employees deserve a raise after not getting one for a few years. Spare me.

First, public employees are overpaid and receive tremendous benefits at the expense of taxpayers. Second, government employees create zero wealth, and they perform services that can be performed cheaper and more efficiently by private industries. Last, if they don’t like their wage, they could always leave, and hopefully never be replaced.

MATTHEW J. PIAZZA, La Mirada