The Hammer has opined extensively about the need for the state to get a handle on the spiraling and unsustainable costs associated with paying the generous salaries and extravagant benefits of state workers.  Given the $2.8 billion deficit facing the state, it should go without saying that anything gobbling up 60% of the state’s budget should be considered when looking at ways to save money.

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation today released an excellent Policy Highlighter on this very issue. 

It is worth taking a few minutes to read what EFF reveals in their analysis of state employee compensation.  For instance, did you know our state’s employees earn (salary and benefits), on average, $19,500 more per year than a private sector employee?  And that doesn’t even include state workers’ golden parachute pensions…when you factor that freebie in, the number is much higher.  And let’s not forget state workers are awarded a significant amount of paid time off (far more so than most private sector workers).   

It’s so bad that two holy grails of state workers’ cushy compensation package, health insurance and pensions, are headed toward insolvency and the unfunded liability of both benefits threaten to bankrupt the state.

But don’t panic—state workers can rest assured these funds will never actually become insolvent because taxpayers will pick up the tab. 

Since Governor Gregoire has already shot down any suggestion that she renegotiate state workers' contracts with her labor union supporters (The Hammer remembers when Gregoire, after doling out double digit pay raises to state workers, assured she would expect them to return the favor if the state ever hit “troubled times”), EFF is urging the Legislature to declare a fiscal emergency so they can do the deed themselves.

Of course, for most Democrat legislators that’s just crazy talk.  Why risk making labor unions mad when you can ignore the will of voters, gut I-960 and raise taxes?