EDITORIAL: The wrong time to raise the idea of public employees eschewing pay raises

The Times of Northwest Indiana

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels asking for some shared sacrifice during lean financial times.

Earlier this month, the governor announced that state employees would not get a pay raise next year as he aims to reduce a projected $763 budget deficit through next June.

Then on Dec. 23, Daniels suggested that all public employees in the state, including municipal, county and school workers, voluntarily forgo pay raises in 2009. "Every such decision would take pressure off local and school budgets and help ensure the continuity of vital public services," Daniels said.

The economic downturn will obviously hit tax revenues as more and more Hoosiers move from gainful work that generates income taxes to the unemployment line. Budgets already stretched thin will be close to the breaking point.

But Daniels' suggestion is simply too late. For local units of government, that train has left the station. Budgets have been debated and voted on; salary ordinances have been approved. Porter County, for example, already approved $1,000 pay raises for its employees.

The suggestion would have been more useful in September, when it became evident that the economy was headed for an extended rough stretch. Two days before Christmas, it smacks of political grandstanding.

Yes, Daniels did set an example by saying he would defer 13 percent of his salary next year. Of course, this also is a man who did very well for himself as president of North American operations for the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. During his 2001 confirmation for the position of White House budget director, Daniels' net worth was listed at $15.7 million.

He'll hardly miss that 13 percent.

But what do you say to most of the 2,000 Lake County employees whose pay has been frozen the past two years? The Lake County Council set aside $1.5 million to be divided up as one-time bonuses for those workers.

And there's the rub.

Many public employees have been sacrificing and going without salary increases in recent years. It's unfair to paint every street department worker, office assistant and teacher with the same brush. The work of the 112 Lake County employees that have been trimmed will be picked up by those who remain. For many, a nominal increase is long overdue and very much needed.

Decisions on salaries rightly goes to the leaders we elect to make those difficult choices. An attempt to guilt public workers into giving back what they've earned places that burden where it doesn't belong.