OCWF Executive Director Jeff Kropf Takes On Public vs Private Sector Compensation KATU Channel 2 Int

Oregon Capitol Watch Executive Director and former State Representative Jeff Kropf was interviewed by KATU Channel 2 News Anchor Steve Dunn on the state capitol mall regarding research that OCWF had conducted over a two year time period about how the state is over paying thousands of state workers and violating Oregon law in the process. Click here to view KATU's report. “The Governor is overpaying many state workers in direct violation of Oregon law and the legislature never knows its happening” said Kropf. “Shouldn’t the legislature, who writes the checks for these employees’ salary and benefits, see this market comparison report detailing how many state workers are being overpaid, some by as much as 266% over what the law says they should be paid?” By law, every two years the state must produce the Total Market Comparison Report which compares various categories of state employment with other government and private sector workers doing the same job. Yet this report does not include all the costs of employing a state worker such as COLA’s, vacation and sick time, discounted life insurance and other benefits. “Taxpayers are overpaying thousands of state workers, perhaps as much as 65 million dollars a year, though to be fair this report also shows a few hundred state workers make less than private sector and other government agencies pay for comparable work” Kropf said. “Either way, the law is being ignored, the taxpayers are paying too much and no one is doing anything about it!” Portland State University also compiles and releases a report that includes all the costs of employing a state worker and compares it to government and private sector employees. It shows a much higher cost than the state report for this very reason. “As a former legislator who sat on the budget committee for eight years, I was never told this ‘secret’ report about total employee compensation even existed” said Kropf. “Even if legislators did see it, it wouldn’t be accurate because it doesn’t include all the costs of employing as state worker” You can watch the entire interview at the link to the above right . The KATU website also has the entire report online that you can read for yourself.