Our elected officials at the City (the Mayor and City Representatives) are getting 15% pay raises this year. The people at the City working for an hourly wage are getting a 2.5% raise.
Our elected officials at the City (the Mayor and City Representatives) are getting fat pay raises this year. But it’s not their fault.
City Council gets a raise because of a Charter amendment that passed (by popular vote) back in 2018, tying City Council’s salaries to the median household income of El Paso County. I opposed it when it happened. The measure passed anyway.
Nonsensical, right? Why tie the salary of an elected official in the city of El Paso to the household income of a whole family in El Paso county?
But the voters are easily duped.
Also, the firefighters union wants a 7.5% annual pay raise for the four years that their new contract will run. Seven and a half percent a year. 7.5% compounded annually for four years yields a 34% increase from the base salary. In four years.
Fire fighting is one of the better jobs in El Paso. There aren’t a lot of fires. Not too many kittens stuck in trees. Firefighters work 24 hours and then get two days off. Rinse. Repeat.
(Do people really call the fire department for kittens stuck in trees, or is that just an old trope in black and white?)
Nice work if you can get it.
Over the last couple of years central El Paso has had at least five fires attributable to arson. Abandoned buildings. Five fires. Zero arrests.
It seems like all our public officials are getting raises. Meanwhile, I’m paying $60 for a grocery basket that only cost me $40 a year ago. Those of us working in the private sector, or on fixed incomes, have had our real incomes decline in the last couple of years. Our ruling class, though, keeps getting fatter, oblivious to the hardships of the working man.
I imagine that was part of the plan when the proponents advocated for higher pay for City Representatives. Our big money local interests wanted elected representatives who were economically closer to the moneyed interests than the interests of the less fortunate.
Thank God that City Council isn’t doing a lot, because when they’re busy they’re wasting taxpayer dollars.