The Great Wicomico / Salisbury Pay Raise Scam of 2008
At first glance, it appears that we should give three cheers to the Daily Times op-ed staff for today’s editorial calling for the removal of all pay raises from the FY 2009 Wicomico County budget. While sounding as if they are taking bold steps on behalf of the taxpayer, their call for true fiscal restraint rings a bit hollow.
Note that there is only mention of the Wicomico County budget. Where is the criticism of Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman’s budget? Not only does the Mayor include pay raises in her budget, she is handing out some fat raises within her own office. I guess that Tilghman press secretary Laura D’Alessandro failed to notify her co-workers that Tilghman has budgeted over $100,000 MORE in her budget for the bureaucracy of the Mayor’s office than she has for street repairs.
Now that the campaign to re-elect Barrie Tilghman (or elect Gary Comegys) for Mayor seems to have begun we can hardly expect too much scrutiny of Salisbury fiscal affairs. Of course, there wasn’t much scrutiny before.
As for the Wicomico County budget, there is no question that the 3.5% raise for county employees should be put on hold. What about Board of Education employees? While the Gannett gang may claim that teachers and WCBOE staff are included in this, they certainly don’t explicitly advocate for flat BOE wages.
There has been some talk of the Wicomico County Council making line item cuts in the BOE budget. I hope that this is the case. IF the County Council actually spent time pouring through the BOE budget, I am sure that spending hawks like Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman could find a fair chunk of fat to cut despite the claims of the BOE that EVERY dollar is well spent. If you add the expertise of Councilwoman Gail Bartkovich, who always seems to find the facts no matter how deeply buried, the taxpayers could wind up with a material savings.
There may be one problem. I am not sure if the Wicomico County Council (or County Executive Rick Pollitt) has the authority to make line item cuts in the BOE budget. I believe that this is the sole responsibility of the Board of Education itself. I hope that I am mistaken.
IF the County Council cannot make line item cuts in the BOE budget, the board will simply take money from their true mission - educating our kids - while maintaining already agreed to pay raises for WCBOE employees and continuing to feed the bureaucracy. Our elected representatives should have the final say, not appointees (no matter how well intentioned) who will almost always side with the Superintendent and his staff.
There is also no mention of the Sheriff’s office. While I certainly don’t begrudge our deputies their promised pay increase, it is important that EVERYTHING is on the table. This also means that IF council decided to fund pay raises (in whole or in part) in the Sheriff’s office that they should not necessarily also fund other pay raises “to be fair”. Our elected officials are there to pass laws and to set priorities.
Hopefully, the Wicomico County Council will reach the correct conclusion. As for the Salisbury Council, I’ve pretty much given up on America’s most irrelevant legislature.
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