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California Highway Patrol salaries

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Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#91

Post by stretchwithme »

patio11 wrote: post #83

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that unions exercise total capture of the Californian budgetmaking process. (100% payraises in the face of the financial collapse? For line officers? In only two years? After they're the best paid in the nation? Before you consider the pensions?!)

These guys are getting a lot of overtime in their last year so they can jack up their pensions. Some fools in Sacramento agreed to just consider the LAST year of work when calculating their pensions.

Obviously, Californians are being taken for a ride. By the union, by whoever is approving the overtime (probably another union member), by the legislative majority and whichever governor signed this very bad deal for taxpayers into law.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#92

Post by SriniK »

Osiris wrote: post #88
rjett wrote: post #78

Something tells me that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of absurd California state spending. Check out the proposed budget for 2010-11 at http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pd... . The Department of Business, Transportation, and Housing will spend $12.5 billion or 10.5% of the total budget. The CHP is included in this amount, spending around $2.5 billion. If CHP comprises such a sm…

Don't forget that Arnold has said the biggest problem with the budget is the state workers unions, like the teachers unions. They are under CONTRACT and cannot change those expenditures at will.

It's weird. No offense but BART janitor makes 80K. Someone I know is a chemical research scientist, with advanced degree is making 70K. Now we are talking about cutting education budget, some schools are loosing non mainstream course work all together.

This is absurd there is gotta be some solution.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#93

Post by stretchwithme »

Osiris wrote: post #88
rjett wrote: post #78

Something tells me that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of absurd California state spending. Check out the proposed budget for 2010-11 at http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pd... . The Department of Business, Transportation, and Housing will spend $12.5 billion or 10.5% of the total budget. The CHP is included in this amount, spending around $2.5 billion. If CHP comprises such a sm…

Don't forget that Arnold has said the biggest problem with the budget is the state workers unions, like the teachers unions. They are under CONTRACT and cannot change those expenditures at will.

We can change the people who blindly approved such deals.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#94

Post by jacoblyles »

patio11 wrote: post #83

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that unions exercise total capture of the Californian budgetmaking process. (100% payraises in the face of the financial collapse? For line officers? In only two years? After they're the best paid in the nation? Before you consider the pensions?!)

Popular wisdom in California is that the budget problem is happening because it's too hard to raise taxes.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#96

Post by metamemetics »

Osiris wrote: post #61
SamAtt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't trade jobs with a CHP officer either but I do have to wonder about the skill level. I'm sure it's harder than I think but the job still boils down to parking on the side of the freeway, spotting violators, chasing them for about a minute and then writing them a ticket. Is that really worth $48+ an hour? Because that seems to be around the average pay (The CHP has a very powerful union so their base pay hou…

Actually, the skill level is fairly high. The CHP academy is around 7 months long. Training is similar to boot camp. They train physically, high speed and safe driving techniques, weapons training, and of course they have to learn the vehicle code (it's a LOT bigger than you might think), and how to write reports. Getting into the academy is fairly difficult, and many cadets washout before finishing. There are so man…

>Training is similar to boot camp

I somehow doubt it's harder than real boot camp in the marines, and their base pay is at least 5 times less!

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#97

Post by metamemetics »

poet wrote: post #49
patrickgzill wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, however EMTs get paid less and see similar things, as do volunteer firemen earning $0 in my part of Pennsylvania. FWIW in most areas police are statistically less likely to die a violent death than the populace at large.

To be fair, police have to deal with a wider range of psychological issues than jobs in rescue. Not only are police exposed to most things that rescue jobs are exposed to, they also have to deal with domestic violence, hostage situations, exploitation of minors and other disadvantaged groups, threats from organized crime, and sometimes actually pulling the trigger themselves. Hell, just the fact that police officers…

>police have to deal with a wider range of psychological issues

Not nearly as much as those serving in the military whose salary is vastly less (closer to the population median income).

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#98

Post by Hubbert »

Osiris wrote: post #61
SamAtt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't trade jobs with a CHP officer either but I do have to wonder about the skill level. I'm sure it's harder than I think but the job still boils down to parking on the side of the freeway, spotting violators, chasing them for about a minute and then writing them a ticket. Is that really worth $48+ an hour? Because that seems to be around the average pay (The CHP has a very powerful union so their base pay hou…

Actually, the skill level is fairly high. The CHP academy is around 7 months long. Training is similar to boot camp. They train physically, high speed and safe driving techniques, weapons training, and of course they have to learn the vehicle code (it's a LOT bigger than you might think), and how to write reports. Getting into the academy is fairly difficult, and many cadets washout before finishing. There are so man…

Wow: 7 whole months of paid schooling!

The minimum standard for an engineer / programmer these days seems to be: * Hard classes in high school * 4 years of undergrad paying $$$$$$ * Internships / side projects as undergrad * "Masters' degree required"

All to be told "Academic work doesn't count: what significant INDUSTRIAL projects have you completed?"

Sigh.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#99

Post by Hubbert »

jmathai wrote: post #62

Meanwhile, teachers struggle to get supplies for their classes and kids' music and art programs are cut.

Teachers get paid pretty well for 9 months of part-time work; see http://www.lawsuitindustry.org/html/cr_50.htm

and others. Of course some do work long hours during their 9 months, but many don't.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#100

Post by ojbyrne »

tlrobinson wrote: post #81
ojbyrne wrote: post #30

Just a little perspective, the 2 people at the top of the list (do search all) are football coaches making $2 million plus each year. And as an inspirational aside suggesting anyone can make it big, one of them coached in the Canadian Football League. He was probably lucky to make $40k a year there.

A head football coach who does well at a school like Cal can bring in revenue many multiples of $2 million per year. Unfortunately for Cal, that's not the case currently...

I've heard that particular canard before, but its just hand-waving. Who says he has to get paid $2 million? What if it was $500k? I think if you looked at it objectively, you might find that it's like startup CEOs - cheaper is better.
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