Policing public pay scales

If, as Marion City Council members contend, applicants for police positions don’t really care about having extra-generous pensions, why not switch back — as Hillsboro has done — to lesser pensions that still surpass Social Security?

Giving out huge raises because the incentive of an outstanding pension plan no longer attracts applicants suggests it’s time for that very expensive plan to go.

It’s also time for automatic longevity raises to go. If experience on the job makes you a more valuable employee, you deserve a raise — but one based on merit, not automatically earned just by being in the job for a longer period.

Automatic raises also are supposed to help with rising costs of living, but cost-of-living raises seem to be completely separate.

If this sounds like double-dipping, it is. And it’s particularly grievous when merit raises are awarded in addition to longevity and cost-of-living raises.

We admire local public servants and wish them every financial success. But we also worry about those paying the bills — people who rarely get the same degree of generous pensions, benefits, holidays, and raises that they provide to the people they employ as public servants.

— ERIC MEYER