Other people's money

Published November 28, 2013

by Carter Wrenn, November 27, 2013.

It wasn’t exactly subtle the other morning when the newspaper ran two stories side by side: One about a single mother who works all day and then works three additional jobs nights and weekends to make ends meet – and a second story about the Director of the Raleigh Housing Authority.

 

It turns out every year the Housing Authority’s board meets to set the director’s pay for the coming year – only there’s an odd fact: Going back years, there’s no record in the board’s minutes of how much the board voted to pay the director – so there’s no public record of the salary some pesky reporter might lay his hands on and publish in the newspaper.

Once, according to the News and Observer, the board ran into a problem because Congress put a limit on how much it could pay the Housing Director – a limit the board had long ago exceeded. But, somehow, the board sidestepped Congress and everything worked out fine until the other morning when a reporter showed up and asked why the head of the Raleigh Housing Authority was being paid more than the head of the Chicago Housing Authority.

That question must hit the director like a dose of cold water but it turned out the cat was out of the bag – the legislature had changed the law and theNews and Observer had come across his salary in records in the state Treasurer’s office.

 

Of course the Chairman of the Board defended the director, saying the director was a wonderful, brilliant, exemplar of civic virtue who earned every penny he made – even if he was making more than the Governor. 

 

This is another chapter in a very old story:  A reasonable man will be a model of frugality for years when spending his own hard-earned money, but the moment he gets appointed to a board where he’s spending other people’s money frugality flies right out the window. The Director of the Raleigh Housing Authority is making $272,000 a year.

 

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November 28, 2013 at 9:08 am
Richard Bunce says:

That is the systemic problem with government and government bureaucrats in a nutshell.

November 28, 2013 at 11:33 am
Norm Kelly says:

Obviously in my younger days I made the wrong decision about my future career. When I was in high school many years ago, computers were beginning to infiltrate the general public. (I use the term 'high school' different than the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania, though. That guy spent his school years high, I spent my school years in grades 9-12!) Granted that is a long time ago. But computers simply fascinated me and made me change my mind about my future career - what I wanted to do to earn money to support my future wife & family.

Obviously I should have chosen public service. It's obvious that the work load is much lighter; it's obvious the pay is much greater. And from what I hear, the job security is the best anywhere in the country. Combine the salary/pay that's better (by a long shot!) than the people who pay the taxes to pay your salary along with the incredible retirement plan, that's going to bankrupt the people who pay the taxes to pay your retirement, and you have a package that can't be beat.

No wonder the people in charge of Raleigh HA wanted to keep this guy's compensation package secret. This is a stupid number that can NOT be justified, even by bleeding-heart liberals. Just like the salary paid for the Wake County Schools superintendent. Unjustifiable, but keeps going up with every new hire.

At some point, even liberals will have to face the reality that the people who pay the salaries (that's taxpayers to liberals!) are going to 1.) run out of money, 2.) riot in the streets to get these people fired without benefits. Just because you work for the government does not mean you get to rape the citizens. The Board or Committee that decided to pay this guy that much money should also be fired, probably fined, and consider spending time in jail for fraud or some other such charge. The madness must end! Big government is so obviously not the answer.

November 29, 2013 at 9:19 pm
John LaVere says:

Looks like certain new hires at NC DHHS are looking to cultivate a piece of this action ...