WEATHERING THE RECESSION: Public-sector workers should share the pain

Over the past week we have seen local governments -- Clark County and several cities -- submit budgets for the next fiscal year. Disappointingly, those budgets were largely balanced through layoffs and shifts of money from capital projects and reserve funds and not by tackling the real problem: the exceptionally high level of local government employee compensatio

Recent Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce studies have shown that Nevada's public employees are the sixth highest paid public employees in the country. Those studies also point out that there is a significant difference in the pay of local government employees and those employed by the state of Nevada and the private sector. Local government employees make nearly 30 percent more than those employed in the same job in the private sector and state government.