Below we talked about the massive budget deficit crisis facing Ohio.
A new study helps us understand where a portion of that deficit comes from.
Using data from state government, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Social Security Administration, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Dr. Matthew Marlin, the Chair of Economics and Quantitative Sciences at the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business at Duquesne University, and his team found that the yearly cost of the median state government worker when including pay, health care premiums, sick leave, and pension contributions is $66,051, which is $16,800 more than the private-sector peer. Marlin et al. further found that over a 30-year career, the state government worker costs roughly twice as much as his private- sector peer ($3,725,470 versus $1,893,096).
Does anyone think that is fair? Does anyone think that is how government should operate? Does anyone think the state should be more responsible with taxpayer dollars?
State government is out of control. It needs reined in. And Ted Strickland either is too stupid or too scared of the state employee unions that fund his campaign effort to do anything about it.