A dubious honor, but we’re No. 1 in public-private pay gap

Look out, America. We're No. 1.

Foam fingers all around. Wave those tear-stained Battle Born crying towels.

We are the champions, my friends.

Sorry. I get a little carried away. But it's just that it's been so long since we've been No. 1. I say we should celebrate.

If you're like me, you've grown tired of Nevada trailing the rest of the nation in category after category. We're perennial also-rans in countless quality-of-life lists: Smoking. Drinking. Mortgage foreclosure. Bankruptcy. Fraud. High school dropouts. High cholesterol. High unemployment.

You name it and we're just about the worst. Sure, we occasionally edge Guam and Mississippi in a category, but it's hard to get off the couch and shout about that.

Read a few of the endless national stories generated by those lists, based on overrated things like census surveys and hard statistics, and you can't help but suspect we're the fattest, drunkest, dumbest, bunch of tax-evading, bankrupt, foreclosed-upon debtors the land has ever known.

And, no, they're not all named Smith.

But those days of also-ran status are over, Nevada. Can you feel the electricity in the air?

I picked up Tuesday's edition of USA Today, and there on the cover was the news that Nevada's local and state government employees earned 35 percent more in pay and benefits than workers in the private sector. That adds up to a difference of $17,815 a year.

I know what you're thinking: "That would just about pay my bar tab and credit card bills." True enough, but let's not get sidetracked.

The figure compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis is staggering and, not surprisingly, is being used as political fodder.

But if you think this breaks down strictly along traditional political and ideological lines, think again. This isn't just about Republicans and Democrats at the Nevada Legislature. It's also about a staggering state budget deficit and the perceived contract excesses of local governments.

That's why you find dyed-in-the-wool Democrat state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford sounding very much like a conservative budget hawk. He actually preached the importance of local government fiscal restraint at Monday's Review-Journal editorial board meeting.

"I support the rights of workers to collectively bargain," he said. "I believe that local employers should negotiate terms that are in the best interests of their local government, and to not agree to provisions in contracts that absolutely make no sense."

(In local government offices, lobbying swords are being sharpened.)

Horsford singled out contract stipulations in union contracts with the Washoe County schools and Henderson. But he easily could have mentioned Clark County firefighter and other government employee contracts. Giving public employee unions an easy upper hand in negotiations was irresponsible, he said.

"Those local employers need to be held accountable for some of that," Horsford said. "Those aren't things that are mandated to them by (NRS) 288 (which defines "Relations Between Governments and Public Employees.") They're things they've voluntarily decided to agree to in a negotiation process."

In fat economic times, with employee unions ginning up political support for favored local politicians and receiving a warm embrace at taxpayer expense, supposedly adversarial relationships held all the tension of Mardi Gras.

"My question is, why can't local employers do what's in their best interests, to take their fiduciary responsibility seriously, and not agree to terms that are not in their best interests ..." Horsford said. "Local officials need to use restraint."

His lecture comes late, but it gives you an idea of where legislators and Gov. Brian Sandoval are eventually going to look to balance the state budget.

Just our luck, Nevada.

We're finally No. 1 in something, and we discover it's not a good thing.

As much as it pains me to tell you, we can't all be government employees.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.