When society experiences a loss of wealth, as we have, then the cost of government services must be reduced and only if needed should the services be reduced.
Home values are down. A couple of two thousand square foot homes in Orange city sold at auction for $120,000 each. Good commercial property went unsold at auction. Land values have fallen because no one is buying. The West Volusia Chamber of Commerce is struggling to survive. Infrastructure for future homes can be found all over the county standing in the weeds, but building has stopped.
Interest rates and investment return is way down. For many people who did invest they have lost 40% of what ever they had. Certificates of deposit are yielding about 2 %. Almost one in ten people is unemployed and another 2 in ten are under employed. People who made $20 an hour for skill trade work will rake leaves or wash houses for $10 or less an hour.
It would be the wrong thing to do to layoff or fire government employees. This would contribute more foreclosures, greater unemployment and underemployment, more saving would be spent, bankruptcy from the failure to pay credit oblations would increase, and there would be less business for businesses to survive on.
The right thing is to deflate the wages and benefits of government employees. Approached on a sliding scale starting at $44k in salary all government employees should receive a 5 to 15% cut in pay. Those making $100k or more should be cut 15%. Employees below $44k would have wages frozen. All vacant positions and all vacancies would be frozen, with fire and police services having the option to present their needs to fill positions quarterly in public hearing before elected officials. All salary and wages schedules for hiring after the freeze should be reduced by 15% for all employees.
The required payments of florida retirement system, workmans comp, social security and medicare, plus future cash payments for unused leave represent a large increase in generous salaries.
Change healthcare and benefits programs. Raise all deductibles in healthcare insurance. Rewrite the policies on sick leave to make no portion of it equal to cash at retirement or leaving employment. Limit the accumulation of annual leave to 30 days and limit the amount of leave paid out in cash at retirement or leaving employment. These are benefits not cash or investments.
Compare the cuts that have happened in real life with the cuts government needs to make to their operational costs. I am not suggesting that salaries be cut 50% like many underemployed people have experienced. I am not suggesting salary schedules be reduced by 40% like the value of homes and investments.
I am suggesting that all the government workers need to keep working, but to be compensated at a level that has a relationship to the loss of wealth that has occurred. The increase in wealth was the very measure of why the cost of government did go up. The wealth of our communities has gone down. So it is only natural that the costs of government must go down without making the problems greatly worse.
