SamSaid!

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

     From time to time I have opined that there is a huge difference between tax dollars and cash money. Cash dollars are in an individual's pocket for individual use, while tax dollars belong to nobody and are in a big reservoir awaiting expenditure by our civil servants for good purposes and some not so good.  No better example can be cited than a recent occurrence at that West Coast Educational Citadel  –  The University of California.

    An independent audit recently (and harshly) found that in addition to $9.3 BILLION dollars paid in salaries, there was an additional $334 MILLION paid in ” additional compensation”  –  including pensions. The examples cited in the audit report are disgusting since they come from the highest levels in our Educational system. Maybe $334 Million won't break the bank, but it isn't chicken feed either. This is not a case of a teen age druggie ripping off a 711 for a handy six and a carton of cigarettes; rather, these ripoffs were initiated and authorized by very highly ranked and paid officials of U CAL.   Somehow it doesn't seem quite right to refer to these items of gross overpayment as poor practices, errors in judgment or decisions that are contrary to compensation policies of the University. Consider, in the year audited, there were 4071 members of the department of Education paid in excess of $168,000 and many of them still benefitted from “additional compensation”  –  which was initiated and approved internally.   

     Cal is budgeted just like any other organization, but obviously, the University brass figure that tax dollars are different and there is nothing wrong in blowing away $344 MILLION dollars improperly and then kissing it off by changing a few policies here and there. I have watched the newspapers for the past month, but I haven't seen any reporting that heads have rolled, indictments have been sought, or any repayment has been demanded. After all, This is almighty CAL  –  not Enron, Tyco, Adelphia or any of the other Corporate miscreants. Should we use the standards of Cal to judge the accused at Enron?  Or is Education fraud and theft exempt from trivialities like the law. Don't expect too much from the Chancellor at Cal, since his pension  was doubled to $395,00 per year  –  nearly twice the pre-existing figure. Think we devote enough tax dollars for education??

     But, what the hell  — it's only tax dollars, so why should we care?