FAT PAY FOR FATTER PUBLIC SERVANTS

SUNSHINE LIST OF HORRORS

The number of Ontario public employees paid out of taxes who made more than $100,000 last year has grown 11% to nearly 98,000, but public outrage hasn't thundered out against the traffic cops, parking ticket officers, jail guards and assorted civil servants who make a lot more than most of us thanks to overtime and inflated salaries.
In fact, a respected news letter out of the Legislature called Inside Queen's Park has noted the lack of fury and the fact that it wasn't raised during Question Period and suggested the annual list be scrapped because it's not worth the bother.
That would be unfortunate. I have often referred to the compulsory reporting of maximum compensation under the Sunshine Law and suspect that many find it useful, even if they don't foam at the mouth because we have become too accustomed to the outrages.
I wonder what has happened to my old friend Bono, who now advises Tory Leader Tim Hudak on verbal strategy from speeches to questions.
Does the volcano slumber?
Surely Mark Bonokoski, after decades as a reporter, columnist, editor, commentator and publisher with the Sun chain, hasn't mellowed to the degree that he thinks the overburdened middle class accept this guff, especially as they run around pulling together all the info they need to pay too much income tax.
I shared an office with Bono during some chaotic days, when he marched around rehearsing his invective, bellowing into an unneeded phone to his buddies about his latest cause. It was a wonder that afternoon that the murderer could get through to tell him the cops had arrested the wrong guy.
I know his feelings about overpaid civil servants. Wotinhell is going on, Bono, the opposition should be going after the provincial treasurer, Charles Sousa, who was silly enough to say the latest Sunshine listing shows Ontario runs the leanest government in Canada.
What crap! Is that a civil servant thanking him, or do they aim lower down?
Why do I keep thinking of blaring brass bands when I listen to barrages of hot air from some guy named Sousa?
This rich "cream" making more than double the average wage curdles to a nasty total of $12.5 billion. That's disgusting in a province that now has a debt that some said erroneously was larger than California. That would have been obviously wrong in the old days, but it's nauseating that spending grew so gross in Ontario that we would even be mentioned with a state that was so notorious for  financial ruin before its death bed conversion.
There are plenty of  Grit bull's-eyes around to shoot at but the Tories should blaze away at this one too because the New Democrats certainly won"t.
The average guy, according to StatsCan, is struggling to get to $50,000 a year. The average woman is concentrating on just keeping the job where she earns less than the guy.
You think it doesn't bother them that some cop lounging in the back of traffic court, or some parking  ranger circling the glory pits around hospitals, is making more than $100,000 a year when some of the time they'r just struggling not to doze off.
You think it doesn't bother the robbed middle class that the shuffle of incompetents out of political offices, which is greased with platinum handshakes and deals on benefits, is the only time we hear of changes in departments and agencies.
I think we should continue the law forcing the reporting of public pay over $100,000 but give it another name.
Rogues' Gallery.  Most Unwanted.  How You Wasted Your Taxes.