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But this hardly means that muckraking at the Sierra Madre Tattler will in any conceivable way slow down. There are some things that transcend even the most important of national holidays, and here the practice of free speech is celebrated not just with parades or speeches, but with the relentless pursuit of just that very thing. No matter how annoying or unnecessary some may deem it to be. Or possibly even because of that. You never can tell.
Here is today's portion. According to the Sacramento Bee, the State of California now employs a little over 300,000 people, making it by far the largest employer of any state in the entire country. And as a public service, one made available on their website for public perusal over the 4th of July weekend, The Bee has published a database of every position and salary in the state. You can now look up each and every one of those 300,000 jobs, and find out what those folks are making. The obvious conclusion being it's a wonder the state can make ends meet.
Of course, California has the highest taxes of any state in the union. Something that, when you also consider that Sierra Madre has the highest utility taxes in the state (one of the very few taxable categories available to cities), puts us at the very pinnacle of the taxed in this country. Obviously this bestows upon us a great honor indeed. But I am getting beyond myself.
Here is the slightly less transcendent point The Bee wishes to make (link):
What California state workers earn: The grand finale - With state worker unions at the bargaining table negotiating with Gov. Jerry Brown for more pay, among other issues, The State Worker has been running a series looking at what the state workforce earned in 2011 and 2012 ... There are still 10 bargaining units at the negotiating table after contracts for most state workers expired Monday. The only contract to be renegotiated so far, that for the nine bargaining units represented by SEIU Local 1000, is still awaiting ratification. Local 1000 members will continue voting on the contract through next Monday.
Salaries are a big negotiating point for unions after years of pay cuts, furloughs and personal leave time.
Here are the results of their database category search.
SEIU Local 1000, Part 1 (link)
SEIU Local 1000, Part 2 (link)
State Lawyers (link)
Highway patrol officers (link)
Prison and parole officers (link)
Law enforcement (link)
Firefighters (link)
Engineers (link)
Scientists (link)
Operating engineers (link)
Doctors and dentists (link)
Psychiatric technicians (link)
Health and social services (link)
If that isn't quite enough for you, they also have a database that allows you to access the pay records of each and every state employee. All 300,000 of them. Clickhere to begin your individual search.
You're paying for all of this. You might as well know where your money is going.
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