"A Political Machine Paid For By You"

That’s what the slightly left of center Plain Dealer calls it. In most counties, the auditor’s office is a non-partisan office, dedicated to appraising property values and setting tax rates. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, it’s a place to fund partisan politics on the public’s dime!

A Plain Dealer review of the auditor’s 2007 payroll found that 93 of the 283 employees held political rank, had connections to other political leaders or had a long association with Russo.

...after becoming auditor 11 years ago, Russo hired at least 38 people who either had connections or became politically active after getting their jobs. That’s on top of 49 other hires who were friends of Russo or recommended by associates of Russo.
All told, Russo has about twice as many employees per county resident as either of two comparable counties. One advocate for government reform calls this form of patronage - providing jobs for friends and political allies - an unnecessary cost.

Pad the payroll with friends and political cronies and let the taxpayer pick up the bill! What a country! er, County!

The salaries of those 93 workers totaled $4.5 million last year.

So, if there are twice as many employees than comparable counties, then that’s roughly $2.25 Million* in patronage and what the Plain Dealer called “A rapid-deployment political force”.

“Why are the average taxpayers paying for a patronage system that supports a particular officeholder?” asked Kathleen Barber, who chaired a failed movement to reform the Cuyahoga County structure in the mid-1990s.
Republicans suggest that the auditor’s staff amounts to a publicly financed campaign organization that helps Democrats maintain their decades-long lock on most countywide offices.

In this time of soaring gas prices and rising cost of living, you can take comfort in the fact, that at least in some places, your tax dollars are funding the best political machine that taxpayer money can buy!

*Correction: If there are roughly twice as many employees needed out of 283 total, that would be one hundred and forty something. Out of those 140+ excess employees, 93 of them cost the taxpayers $4.5 Million. Fiscal responsibility (from a Democrat? Surely you jest!) should result in a savings of over $4.5 Million. I mistakenly assumed that half of the patronage employees were unnecessary. So, it's a lot worse than I originally thought! I blame the drugs!

Cross Posted at Say Anything