The Washington Examiner did a little number-crunching and found out that bankrupt Detroit has one city government employee for every 61 residents.
The Examiner then compared Detroit to other U.S. cities, and found 19 of them with a larger ratio of residents to city employees. Washington, D.C., has one city employee for every 20 residents. Remember, that’s city employee, not just government (city and federal) employee.
Two Wisconsin cities make the Examiner’s list.
Madison has one city employee for every 75 residents. The City of Madison has as many employees as Boscobel has residents. And those city employees are better paid than us mere taxpayers. According to the U.S. Census, as of 2011 the average per capita income in this state was $27,192, and the median family income was $52,374. The average City of Madison employee makes $62,233 per year.
Milwaukee has one city employee for every 90 residents, or, put another way, the City of Milwaukee has as many employees as Kimberly has residents. The average City of Milwaukee employee makes $61,729 per year, like Madison more than twice the average per capita income and more than the median famiily ncome..
Keep in mind that this is only of city employees. Not school district employees, not county employees, not state government employees, and not federal employees. Only employees of the city governments of, respectively, Madison and Milwaukee.
And you wonder why every policy idea that comes out of Madison involves more government and higher taxes?
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