The Akron Beacon Journal does a great job today pointing out the inconsistency with Gov. John Kasich’s message bashing public employees as overpaid underachievers while he has greatly expanded the payscale for his own executives:
The more acute disconnect involves the governor’s harsh words for many in the public sector, especially unions, about failing to understand the principle of sacrifice. Kasich insists they make do with less. Then, he turns around and pays his chief of staff $47,000 a year more than the Strickland chief of staff. He might want to set a better example.
Kasich also pays his communications director some $30,000 more than Strickland’s and the list goes on.
I believe the point here is about being connected as well management decisions consistent with political messages. Within the first six months of former Gov. Ted Strickland’s tenure, he ordered a pay freeze for what ended up being all unclassified employees. In those first months of 2007, he struggled with his first set of tough budget choices and felt that already on the books provisions for automatic public employee pay increases was just too much, it was the wrong message. Strickland connected his management decisions with the plight of the rest of Ohio’s workforce which was in the first stages of what we all now know has been a brutal time for our economy.
Kasich on the other hand begins his tenure with even more difficult choices. What is his response? Damn the workeri and take care of his friends and supporters who are now populating his executive ranks. I don’t know if the Kasich disconnect is going to dawn on Ohioans soon, but I believe that over time it will.
One of the circumstances that focuses Strickland’s attention on issues of pay was the Ohio media’s preoccupation with public sector salaries. In the first days of Strickland’s term, The Columbus Dispatch even ran a half page spread of his staff’s smiling faces with their salaries listed underneath. I’m still waiting for that level of scrutiny and hyper coverage from the Dispatch regarding Kasich.
The only way the public will know if they are being conned is if news outlets like the Beacon Journal and Dispatch do their jobs – consistently and fairly – across administrations. In some cases, like the editorial linked above, newspaper editorial pages will connect the dots for the public. In other cases – as inconsistencies mount between the Kasich message and his actions – the public will have to connect the dots themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment