In Case You Missed It

"In Case You Missed It" is a new category I'm adding to the blog. It will consist of interesting things I've come across that I think you should read and/or know. I'll do this periodically and hope you'll enjoy the the highlights and take the time to read the entire articles linked.

Presidential Property - Tim Higgins at Just Blowing Smoke takes a look at the concept of personal property and the interference of the government when it comes to contracts and salary. He makes a really good argument for why government has no authority in the matter, not that anyone in D.C. is listening...

Not News: 4Q09 Treasury Collections Down 11% from Previous Year - Tom Blumer at BizzyBlog, known for paying attention to fiscal matters, details how revenue projections from the Congressional Budget Office are off and won't likely be met. This is critical! Congress spends based upon their projections, but it looks like the CBO is taking lessons from Toledo budget predictions - creating estimates of income that clearly are not based in reality, nor reflective of the collections so far.

Employee Compensation in State and Local Governments - Cato Institute takes a look at the costs of employee compensation in state and local governments and how those costs are not really going down, despite reduced revenues. Many continue to assert that government workers have better benefits to compensate for a lower wages than what they could earn in the private sector. But the figures from Cato proves this to be a myth.

The average Average Compensation for 2009 (in Dollars per Hour Worked) is $26.01 for state and local employees but only $19.39 for the private sector. Even when you break down the nation by regions to account for significantly varying wages across the states, you find that government employment often pays around 26% more than private employment does.

I hope you'll take the time to read the entire bulletin.

The Patriot Post:

"The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife." ~ Thomas Jefferson