Governments Increase Payrolls

The Associated Press ^ | JULY 03, 2002 | The Associated Press

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

WASHINGTON (AP) — State and local governments increased their payrolls last year in spite of the slowing economy.

There were nearly 15.4 million state and local workers in March 2001, up 2 percent from March 2000, according to results being released Wednesday from an annual Census Bureau survey. The worker count included 11.2 million local government employees.

Total payroll in March 2001 was $49.3 billion, up from $46.7 billion the previous year, the survey found.

Once again, elementary and secondary school-related positions including teachers, were the biggest category of the overall workforce, numbering over 6.1 million and costing $18.4 billion.

The survey compared employment and payroll figures over a one-month period each year. Results come as many governors and mayors deal with the effects of last year's recession on their state budgets.

[Willie Green]

Sadly, no downsizing or layoffs for Willie Green to post here.

[umgud]

Gov't workers, regardless of their need or their dedication, are still tax users, even though they also pay taxes. Poor or lower wage people are also tax users, regardless of how hard they work. We have over 15 mln gov't workers and a whole lot of poor or low wage earners and not many tax producers supporting both the poor and the gov't workers.....What a squeeze. A country can only sustain a certain number of tax users before it collapses. We had better reckon this before it is too far gone to fix.

[zeugma]

Gotta wonder if anyone here is suprised at all by this.

In other news, the sun rose in the east again this morning...

[Willie Green]

bump