Archive for May, 2011
Tax more of what you want less of
by AnonTerp on May.18, 2011, under Budget, Leadership
The budget news is not rosy but at least not as bad as yesteryear: no raises in the coming year but neither are there any furloughs expected. (Of course, we’ve heard that message before…) And wow: eligible state employees will even get a $750 one-time bonus!
Unfortunately the state’s socialist tendencies are showing. When the state grabbed money from its ready cash machine (us) it took based on a progressive scale. There was no sharing the pain equally – some workers lost only a couple days to furloughs, others lost up to ten days. Multiply that times the several years of loss and it adds up.
Yes, yes, the money grab was pegged to one’s annual salary, since those evil rich people can afford it, and never mind how a lot of people sacrificed to become qualified for such positions, only to be told to sacrifice some more. Never mind how they made life decisions – about such things mortgages or college bills – on the expectation that the state would be good for the salary in return for honest labor as originally priced. Yeah, they can afford to give back.
But now that cash (a pittance) is going the other direction it is everyone shoulder to shoulder sharing equally.
This inequity makes clear that the campus values mediocrity over the standout excellence of people who, while rewarded with greater salary, should have been expected to win on behalf of the campus. And we’re not talking about basketball contracts here either. Organizations that penalize a product in the market will get less of that product, and what Maryland does penalizes excellence. We will have less excellence over time.
How about we all chip in our $750 bonuses and buy some excellent administrators?
