Held Hostage With Lies

Dori Monson had this interesting post on My Northwest:

King County officials say they will likely put a sales tax increase on the ballot this summer. They say they need to jack the tax to avoid drastic cuts to police and criminal justice services.

Without the increase, they claim there will be no more tracking of burglars, fewer domestic violence investigations, arrest warrants piling up, and fewer cases filed.

And they say they need to raise the tax because they have already cut to the bone.

Really?

Take a look at this link with the list of the 17,894 King County employees and their salaries. I'm not very good with Excel - but I know some of you are. Do any of you in the comments want to take a shot at breaking down how many are making over $100,000/year? What is the average salary?

And see if you can find some of the more ridiculous job titles.

But most importantly, can anyone look at this list and tell me, with a straight face, that there is no fat to cut in King County? And that they need to raise taxes to preserve law enforcement?

Please stop buying this game that our politicians play - holding that which is important to us hostage - so their lies can grease the skids for yet another tax increase. It's an incredibly sleazy, shameless strategy on their part.

King County employee salaries

One commenter discovered this: I count 1,473 employees making over 100k/year while the average gross is $54,349.34. Michael David Miner, Police Officer, added 127k worth of overtime to Gross 228k, more than doubling his salary.