Well, here ya go – from PJStar.com:
…(Illinois) State government is an employer, too, with approaching 70,000 full- and part-time workers. And from that pool there are currently 25,000 open workers’ comp claims. That’s a breathtaking number. It is impossible to believe all of those are legitimate…
That works out to about 35% of Illinois State workers having a workers’ comp claim. Not only is is impossible to believe that they are all legitimate, it is impossible to believe that most of them aren’t bogus. Military units engaged in battle don’t have that high a casualty rate. But this is what unionized employee pools bring – especially when they are on the taxpayer’s dime. You just build up a huge number of people who will game the system as much as possible – and, of course, unions setting up contracts to they can be gamed in the most brazen manner.
And its not just Illinois, of course. Out here in Las Vegas there is a brewing scandal over the way our firefighters have been milking the system. All sorts of arcane rules were put in to place regarding sick leave, overtime and such – and because of this, at lot of people figured out they could do things like call out sick, have themselves called in while they were “sick” and then get paid over time for working their regular shifts. One firefighter called in sick 42 times, but never four days in a row because that would have required a doctor’s note – in the end, he managed to pile up 232 grand in 2009.
Cities and States are going broke largely because of things like this – bloated payrolls and pensions brought about by unions working out slick deals with bought politicians. In the end, the only way to ensure rational fiscal policies at the State and local level is to either do what Walker did in Wisconsin, or just outsource all the city services, as Sandy Springs, Georgia did – to massive savings and vastly improved services.
It is time to stop this – it is time to stop allowing tiny, corrupt minorities to look the public treasury for personal gain. Outsource, privatize and get rid of the unions.
HAT TIP: Mish’s
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