Re: [Vo]: Tobacco compensation?? Magic cars??

[OrionWorks]

>From Mike Carrell,
>
> I have read that many states have used the compensation
> from tobacco companies not to help those with lung
> disease, not in anti-smoking campaigns aimed at kids,
> but as supplements to the general revenue, to be spent
> on pork-barrell business as usual. So much for public
> responsibility. Or take the money grab after the federal
> compensation for the 9/11 disaster.
>

This is true assessment. For the state of Wisconsin, for which I have been a state employee for over twenty-five years, the huge tobacco settlement for which the state received was essentially gutted in order to pay the state's burgeoning out-of-control budget for another year. Everyone KNEW the tobacco settlement was being raided to avoid the inevitable. The legislative body was unwilling to bite the bullet and cut necessary expenses for fear of angering various constituents. In the end it only made things worse since it was the beginning of the nation's recession, which, of course, hit our state's economy just as effectively as every other state.

In my +25 years of working for the state I had never seen such an abrupt, massive, and draconian layoff of experienced personnel as what eventually happened around the years of 2003 & 4, when every state agency was forced to layoff cores of highly trained employees with many years of experience under their belt because there simply was no more money to squeeze out of completely drained accounts. Suddenly, the state had to behave like a fiscally responsible corporation and pinch pennies like everyone else.

Currently, the state's budget has finally been restored to a better state of fiscal health. Unfortunately, most state agencies have yet to fully recover from the devastation of lost experience. The amount of man/woman power lost is still acutely felt, including at the Department of Transportation where I'm currently employed.

The irony in all of this can be described in the following true account: A good friend of mine, a graphic artist for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), someone with many years of trained experience, was laid off during the budget crisis of 2003-4. This, of course, didn't stop the state's need to continuously update their maps and public brochures since these matters are mandated by the state to be kept up-to-date. Fortunately, the graphic artist had foreseen the writing on the wall and carefully prepared herself for a new career in the private sectors. She knew the state would still need to have the same work completed. She advertised her graphic artist services as an independent "contractor". The state hired her back as a part-time contractor because she was already trained and knew all the ropes. She ended up performing the exact same duties she had been performing when she had been employed by the state full-time. She charges FARM MORE NOW by the hour for her part-time services than what she had been salaried for by-the-hour when she had been employed full-time at the state. The state was able to justify it because from their perspective they are still paying her less because she has been re-hired back as an independent contractor on a part-time basis.

Since becoming privately employed, she has accumulated plenty of new clients from other state agencies and private enterprises. She makes more now annually than she ever did when she had been employed full-time for the DNR. Despite the fact that the costs of living can be much higher when one is privately employed she is happy in her new circumstances. She recently told me she would never go back to work "full-time" for the state.

People adjust...Or at least the smart ones find a way to.

She doesn't smoke either.

Regards,
Steven Vincent Johnson
www.OrionWorks.com
www.Zazzle.com/OrionWorks