Let’s talk about what’s ‘fair’
We hope the city of Des Moines employees enjoy their free tickets to the Iowa State Fair — compliments of tax-paying citizens at a reported cost of nearly $40,000 — while the rest of us who don’t live on the taxpayer dollar pay for our own. We realize this is only a sliver of the city’s annual budget, but it still doesn’t seem “fair.”
City Manager Rick Clark told the media that additional work from a tough winter and flooding in the spring and summer were reasons for the employee gifts. He asked the City Council to approve spending $20 for each of the city’s 1,850 employees, which allows them to receive two advance fair tickets and a $6 coupon for fair food. Clark called this gesture a “pat on the back” to city workers. Even more shocking than Clark’s audacious request is the fact that the council unanimously approved it. But, then again, they each received free tickets, too.
Clark is correct that it has been a tough year — for everyone. But at a time when every penny should be pinched in both the private and public sectors, this tax-funded freebie is a tougher to swallow than a foot-long corn dog.
City employees are fortunate to have jobs, as a growing number of Des Moines residents can’t say the same. These workers are already provided a laundry list of benefits that employees and employers in private industry could only dream of including 100 percent paid health insurance for single or family, 100 percent paid dental insurance for single or family, 100 percent paid group term life insurance, 100 percent paid long term disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, deferred compensation plans with a City match, post employment health plans with benefits of $1,350 per year, retirement plans with IPERS, sick leave accruals of one day per month, two to five weeks of paid vacation and 11 paid holidays. Holy butter cow!
We expect our city employees to work hard, and for the most part, they do. Their jobs are by no means easy, but that’s why it’s called work. From the reported wages they earn, these folks are certainly capable of covering their costs for fair admission and a pork chop on a stick. But for the council to approve this use of taxpayer money, as they say in the Avenue of Breeds, is bullshit. CV
