Public Employee Salaries Public Knowledge

The major Sioux Falls newspaper still peddles smut, but it also engages in some enjoyable finger-poking in the eyes of our crotchety, secrecy-inclined state government. As KJAM notes, the Sioux Falls newspaper is requesting the salary information of state employees. On a couple of reports, I've heard some vague reference to how the state needs to keep those salaries secret to protect the safety of come employees. Excuse me? How does published salary information endanger any employee?

In my nine years as a contracted public school teacher, everyone in town could find out my salary from the newspaper, board minutes, or school business manager. Last year at Montrose, I made about $29,900 for teaching an coaching, plus $1400 for opting out of the health insurance plan. This coming fall I will become a state employee of sorts, working as a doctoral assistant at DSU. The Board of Regents will issue me a stipend worth $30,900 of taxpayer money, plus they'll charge me a third of the normal tuition rate.

There -- now everyone knows how much I make on the public dole, and I don't feel any less safe. The only threat I can imagine is that people will see what obscene riches I've been gaining at the expense of taxpayers, and I'll face an angry mob of pitchfork- and torch-wielding taxpayers at midnight demanding their money back.

The bottom line is the bottom line: the boss should know how much every one of his employees is making. When it comes to public employees like myself, the public is the boss, and what the pay me (and every other teacher, cop, secretary, economic development official, and State Capitol janitor) should be public knowledge.