Not cool to do friends that’s for sure. I just did it to my CHP friend and felt a bit dirty… Even though he made a shit load of money to give out tickets.

posted 3/12/08 at 7:36 am #

I looked up the name of a Sac State professor and found out that he makes 89,988 dollars a year.

posted 3/12/08 at 8:32 am #

John, you do realize that your CHP friend puts his life on the line each day, right?

posted 3/12/08 at 12:37 pm #

Oh my gosh. This is crazy. I don’t think unelected state workers waive their privacy interests this way by taking a state job.

posted 3/12/08 at 2:57 pm #

runnergirl, we all do at some level of the game. Some as teachers, some as cops, some as businessmen. All are honorable at their core but, ticket quotas, student attendence stacking, and business misdealings I can do without. Full pensions are not offered to businessmen making 100k. Just a thought.

posted 3/12/08 at 4:03 pm #

HeyMeg,
As a public employee, you actually do waive your right to this type of privacy. It’s the taxpayer who has rights, and is giving the tools to exercise those rights. The information has been public for years, the Bee has just made it easier to find.
Then again, like any other state-run database, the information on this one is probably either severely outdated or seriously flawed in some way, so don’t take anything on there as true and accurate info.

posted 3/12/08 at 11:22 pm #

And RTOI,
Community college employees are employees of the Los Rios Community College district and are not State employees, hence, no info in the database.
If you asked nicely, I’m sure LRCC would mail you a list of employees and their salaries as long as you promised not to post the info on any local blogs.

posted 3/12/08 at 11:25 pm #

Thanks sac-eats. I was trying my hand at the snark. Failing once again.

Please note: Data includes lawmakers but not legislative staff members. Community college employees are also not included at this time.

posted 3/13/08 at 6:02 am #

Legislative staffers usually have their salaries listed by name in the Capitol Weekly about once a year (at least they used to when I worked in those circles.)

posted 3/13/08 at 7:06 am #

sac-eats: I’m sure you’re technically correct, the best kind of correct. But I think there is a kind of balance where sure, the info is public, but only somebody with way too much free time would go down to the state library or wherever and look up their neighbors. The real point of this would be in the high end salaries, where we can point at wasteful spending. Making it this insanely easy to look up modest salaries for low-level workers is at least in bad taste I think.

I think we taxpayers should pass a law that state workers should have to wear t-shirts with their salary on the front. For how can I truly be free if I have to walk into a building and fill out a paper request to learn how much a custodian at Long Beach State earns? That’s not America… that’s not even Mexico.

posted 3/13/08 at 8:53 am #

I just don’t think it’s reasonable to expect every state employee to have information typically considered private, like a salary, published to the world. The taxpayer interest in state expenditures can be satisfied by knowing the state’s budget, even down to categories of personnel spending, without being able to identify particular state workers and their salaries. There is no serious taxpayer benefit that comes from being able to pinpoint a particular employee and his or her salary.

posted 3/13/08 at 8:58 am #

what she said.

posted 3/13/08 at 9:19 am #

One quarter of the working population works for one form the the government or another (Fed, State, Ctiy). A QUARTER! These people do not produce anything. They do not contribute to the GNP. They do not do anything except mooch off the rest of us “taxpaying” suckers. Their “services” are disproportionatly geared toward the poor, the lawbreakers, the menatally ill: In other words, the other people in society that don’t contribute, and only drain from the economy.
If I’m paying a HS graduate $125,000 a year, plus pension, plus health, plus retirement, plus, plus, plus…, to be a file clerk (yep), I damn well get to know about it, if not DO something about it.

I’m all for law enforcement, and I understand privacy concerns. But if you want a cush 9-5 job, that you can’t be fired from unless you kill your boss, with excellent benifits, and you don’t have to produce anything (I’m not talking files, I’m talking creating something of value to the economy), all at the expense of the “taxpayer,” then yes, you should expect your salary to be posted. Would also be interesting to see the value of all the benifits and perks such employees get, since I’m paying for them.

posted 3/13/08 at 9:38 am #

I think we can all agree on one point here: The Public Interest and Public Policy are rarely the same thing.

posted 3/13/08 at 9:39 am #

TS presumably you’re at work and you seem to have plenty of time on your hands at well. Care to disclose your salary?

posted 3/13/08 at 10:15 am #

sac-eats: hear, hear.

posted 3/13/08 at 11:47 am #

“Squirty Tip’s” financials are already publicly disclosed. Who is the detective?

posted 3/13/08 at 12:46 pm #

Legislative staffers are now posted.

posted 3/14/08 at 9:31 pm #