How can elected leaders be expected to deal honestly with that crisis when they don't share the pain?
To be fair, government health insurance is not available to every elected politician in Utah. It depends on the policies of individual cities and towns, counties or school boards. Sometimes the people getting the benefit pay premiums in addition to the employer's contribution, sometimes not.
But when members of the Jordan Board of Education voted themselves a hefty pay raise earlier this month, from $3,000 to $12,000 a year, plus the option of taking a $17,456 cash payment in lieu of a taxpayer-funded health-insurance benefit, it set off a public howl.
And rightly so.
We don't mean to suggest that members of the Jordan school board don't work hard at their part-time public service. But when they are rewarded with health insurance worth $17,000 a year at the same time that raises in schoolteachers' take-home pay are whittled away by the rising health-insurance premiums they pay, something is out of joint.
The worst example of this sort of thing is the U.S. Senate, a club of multimillionaires who claim to speak for the people of the United States. They have given themselves gold-plated, taxpayer-funded health insurance. Then many of them - are you reading this, Bob Bennett? - have the cheek to argue that if only Americans could get a bigger tax deduction for a medical savings account, everything would be jake.
Tell that to someone who is working several part-time jobs to try to support a family and isn't eligible to buy employer-based health insurance at any price.
The Utah Legislature reformed its taxpayer-funded health insurance benefits a few years ago after a public outcry, but the current arrangement still would make most workers in the private sector sick with envy.
We believe that part-time elected officials should be compensated for some of the economic sacrifices they undoubtedly make in the cause of public service. But taxpayer-funded health insurance should be off the table.
Taxpayer-funded health insurance should be off the table.
