County Judge Veronica Escobar addressed the salary increase issue with this letter posted via the Constant Contact website. In it she includes this tidbit:
The County budget and the University Medical Center (UMC) budget together represent nearly $1 billion annually.
Gee, you think she should have introduced the UMC into this discussion? The UMC, the one that just voted to raise their tax rate as high as they could without putting it to a vote? The UMC, the one that settled for a million bucks for performing that invasive body cavity search of that woman crossing the border? The UMC, the one that’s hemorrhaging money as the result of absorbing the Children’s Hospital?
And then there’s the Children’s Hospital. Here’s what Judge Escobar said about the Children’s Hospital back in 2011.
We’re going to look back and say the Children’s Hospital was one of the best things we ever built. I’m very excited about where we’re headed.
Maybe not so much anymore.
If I’d been trying to justify big raises maybe I would have left the UMC out of the discussion.
To her credit, the County Judge did post the rationale for the salary increase, and that’s better than a lot of decisions that get made around here.
Yeah, she’s got her “justification,” but this is one tired taxpayer who cannot understand why a part time, elective position could possibly be deserving of a salary +benefits so much higher than the people she is supposed to be serving.
Valenti got out just in time. We keep talking about the other shoe falling. It’s gonna be raining footwear here in about a month or two.