‘Save our salaries!’

Some political demonstrations are so transparently self-serving, so disingenuous on their face, it's astonishing they're carried out in the first place.

But there were the exceptionally well-paid, unionized workers of Clark County picketing outside their downtown offices Monday, chanting, "Save our services!" There they were again Tuesday, packing the County Commission chambers (on their own time, we're assured), wearing their purple Service Employees International Union T-shirts, no less.

County officials have been forced to cut social services spending, among other expenses, because of a state money grab, the painful recession and, most importantly, the unsustainable growth of employees' wages and benefits. As businesses lay off workers, reduce hours and cut costs in response to revenue declines, the county is still handing out pay raises to public employees thanks to the long-term contracts they negotiated with the SEIU and other bargaining groups.

You can imagine the union's brain trust planning this week's events: "We've got to divert attention from the financial burden our members' salaries are putting on the county's finances. Let's demand sacrifice from others and protest the budget cuts we're largely responsible for!"

What's next? Malpractice lawyers rallying at the Capitol for more affordable health care? The SEIU members might as well have chanted "Save our salaries!"

Among their cost-cutting suggestions to commissioners: switching county operations to a four-day work week and allowing unionized staff to have three-day weekends, laying off management and raiding the capital improvement reserve to restore some social services -- which would, as a coincidental benefit, preserve every union job.

On Tuesday, commissioners were gracious and respectful to the rank-and-file who've helped deliver so many election victories. And they thanked the union for agreeing to reduce their promised pay raises by a couple of percentage points (while still keeping raises that private-sector workers can only dream about in this economy). But commissioners were appropriately realistic about the county's gloomy financial outlook -- and the viability of the union's suggestions.

Commissioner Larry Brown chided the union for offering no evidence that the county is fat at the administrative level, and he told the SEIU audience that county government can't disregard infrastructure needs to save jobs that are no longer needed. Managers have cautioned that swiping capital funds to cover operational expenses would be a one-year fix that leaves the county with one less safety net for next year, which is expected to bring worsening revenue shortfalls.

"I think the people have to come first, not the projects," social worker Richard Long said at Monday's rally. "That's the rule of government: to provide services to the community."

No, the primary purpose of government is to protect the rights of its citizens -- not to seize and redistribute their wealth through high-paying bureaucracies charged with delivering "services."

The SEIU -- and every other Nevada government union -- should remember that the next time its members rally in support of their own paychecks.