When times are tough, taxpayers are usually forced to take it on the chin (or wallet) while bureaucrats and government employees see their paychecks continue to grow. Not so in El Paso County, if Commissioner Dan Haggerty has his way. He’s proposed a 5-percent across-the-board cut in salaries to fill a $10 million budget hole.
According to the El Paso Times, sheriff’s deputies would be exempt from the cut.
Commissioners had previously ordered department heads to reduce their budgets by 5 percent.
As one might expect, county employees managed to find the time last week to testify against the Haggerty proposal. A vote was delayed until later in the month.
Without even a hint of irony, the El Paso Times helpfully noted in their write-up that “county staff members are proposing that all elected officials take a 5 percent pay cut, which would save about $300,000 this year.”
Apparently county employees don’t consider what is good for the goose to be good for the gander.
Mr. Haggerty does; he included elected officials in his proposal. He very correctly says that wage cuts are far preferable to a tax hike.
Haggerty: “I’m telling you, the days of big government are over.”
