Meanwhile, the police department's budget is 25% of all funds, the fire department's 20%. Nearly half of the city's budget goes to 38 people and their toys. $485,000 per employee.
The police department, in turn, extracts more in fines from the people who either live or travel through the city than the city takes in from sales taxes or property taxes. These fines are now a budget item, and counted as income towards paying off the extractors.
I'd compare public employees in California to the mob, but that’d be painting the mob badly. And we're trained by the public employees to accept this situation.. The other day, in a nearby city, there were reports of a very loud argument followed by shots fired. When the police sent in a robot five hours later, two bodies were found within the home, both having bled out from gunshot wounds. It was a domestic murder-suicide.
The rational response would be arriving at the scene, and if no arguing is heard, nor shots being fired, to enter into the home and help the victim. The union response is to stand around, call for more assistance, ensure that neighbors are evicted from their homes, then summon up some expensive solution that will arrive hours beyond any chance of saving a life, lest someone who is paid to risk their lives for the public good actually do something. Then undergo expensive counseling and sick leave to handle the trauma of finding a victim was dead that might have been saved.
Everyone at the table thought my opinion was completely irrational and outrageous. What if someone had a gun in there and was waiting to shoot a cop? Well, what of it? Is that not what police are paid to do? Instead, police today are paid to extract under force as much money as possible from the citizens to pad their salaries and benefits. They drive luxury cars at public expense with the latest technology to better rob the public, armed to the teeth and armored against most dangers.
At the federal level, yes, slashing the welfare programs is critical for balancing the future budgets. At the state and local levels, slashing the salaries and benefits for public employees is most critical, followed by demanding public employees actually perform the job they're paid to do. Ryan budgets do nothing to affect these issues, nor the massive debts that public employee benefits are piling onto the shoulders of the taxpayers.