Stephen Beale quoted me in a GoLocalProv article, last week, about the winners of Rhode Island’s municipal government salary race:

One taxpayer advocate worries that high compensation may lead to an entitlement mentality among local officials. Rather than welcome citizen involvement, they are incentivized to preserve their power, according to Justin Katz, the research director for the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

“At a recent meeting of the Tiverton Budget Committee, newly elected member Donna Cook commented that people are beginning to feel like they work for the town’s employees, rather than the other way around,” said Justin Katz, who is also a Tiverton resident.

“Simply put, government creates far too many opportunities for people to reach the upper tax brackets,” Katz added. “When residents of a city of town decide to get active at the local level, they’re inherently disadvantaged against a group with so much incentive to keep things out of their hands, and for whom political advocacy is ultimately part of their job.”

The most significant thing to note about Stephen’s article, though, may be the limits that he put on his top 30 list.  It’s only for employees in some kind of management position, and it excludes school superintendents, because they would take pretty much the whole list.  As the payroll application hosted on the site of Tiverton Fact Check shows, even our small town has a superintendent and a police lieutenant who make more money than some of the municipal administrators on the list.

Looking around at Rhode Island’s roads and its education system, it’s difficult not to agree with Donna Cook.  Who’s working and sacrificing for whom?