Hey, gang, it’s been a while. As a fledgling blog, we really shouldn’t go three weeks without content, but sometimes these things happen.
What things, you ask? Why, none of your damn business, of course.
(In all, honesty, I had a tough week at work followed by a week of vacation; bosie may or may not be dead).
But bad writing never takes a vacation. So, let’s take quick look at a little piece in The Nevada Appeal by Chuck Muth. In this, he attacks everyone’s favorite target: frivolous government spending. For an opinion columnist, this is the equivalent of firing an elephant gun into, I don’t know, something smaller than a herd of elephants, I guess. (It was a nice vacation, thanks).
Whenever the issue of laying off government employees is raised, the Left likes to misrepresent the discussion by declaring that to mean teachers, cops and firefighters — as though there are no other kinds of government workers employed by taxpayers. With that in mind, I did a quick search of taxpayer-funded UNLV’s Web site to see if there are any government workers there who AREN’T teachers, cops or firefighters.
First of all, I adore the fact that he capitalized “Left” here, as if John Reed had just returned from Russia and had settled into a suite at the Mirage. Moreover, it’s curious that he decided to prove that there are government employees other than teachers by looking at, of all things, a university.
In fairness, I’ve seen interviews with Larry Johnson so it is possible that no teaching takes place at UNLV.
And you’ll never believe what I found.
Tell! Tell!
There are!
You jest!
• Family Services Specialist II ($43,639)
• University Parking Enforcement Officer II ($35,475)
• Library Assistant III ($30,192)
• Mail Service Technician ($38,523)
• Head Coach Softball ($75,317)
• Public Affairs Specialist ($52,416)
• Dental Assistant II ($32,677)
• Assistant Director of Parking ($67,600)
• Executive Chef ($62,057)
• Sous Chef ($42,805)
• Assistant Track & Field Coach ($41,600)
• Painter I ($47,606)
• Degree Audit System Analyst ($44,587)
• Assistant to the Vice President ($91,520)
• Special Assistant to the Vice President ($94,104)
• Creative Services Manager ($68,350)
• Art Professor ($110,846)
• Associate Professor of Dance ($57,226)
• Associate Professor of Music ($79,556)
So to prove that there are government jobs other than teacher and police officer, Mr. Muth produced a list that that includes three professors and two parking enforcement agents – which are likely an off-shoot of the campus police force. That’s precious.
The rest of the list doesn’t strike me as particularly egregious for a major state university. I suppose you could cut the cafeteria and the athletic department, but I’m not sure that’s a wisest of decisions. And, yes, $90,000 to an assistant to a VP seems a bit high, but you can probably find one or two extraneous job titles in any organization.
And this is just for one school in the Nevada System of Higher Education. It doesn’t even scratch the surface of the rest of government — especially K-12 and Health & Human Services. And don’t even get me started on the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Consumer Affairs Division.
Seriously, don’t get him started. Because apparently, he could not locate a list of those jobs.
The question really is, why go after UNLV of all state institutions? Surely, there is a Department of Sand or something hidden deep within the Nevada state beauracracy.
Is THE RIGHT (see what I did there?) about to take an approach of drastic cuts in higher education? Because that is sure to be a winner at the ballot box.
1 Comment
August 4, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Mostly dead.