FOLKS, PLEASE STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BELOW AND SEE FOR YOURSELF JUST WHY OUR GEAUGA COUNTY GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO RUN $1.4 MILLION IN THE RED FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR!   HAVE A LOOK AT THIS:  A COP MAKING $96,000+++, A TEACHER MAKING $83,000+, A PARK WORKER MAKING $106,000+++ !! THIS IS REAL STUFF AND MUST BE READ TO BE BELIEVED!  IT'S TIME TO MARCH UP TO THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE AND DEMAND SOME ANSWERS!   OH THE HORROR.... OH THE HORROR... 

       As you wished, I have been requesting information from the Geauga County government system and I have talked with some of the officials this week. In a word:   YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ BELOW. This is a MUST read for all citizens of Geauga County! Stop what you are doing and look at these figures. I would be interested in your response. I KNOW what my response was... I ground my teeth together, twisted my face into a horrible sneer and shook my fists at the heavens and THEN I picked up the phone to the county auditor's office. 
     Friends and neighbors, as you read the "County Report" below, you will see what I have been saying for years on this blog: The various "budgets" (read that as unchecked liberal spending) in this county - county/school district/township/village ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE.  Period.  And now they have, as we predicted here, HIT THE BRICK WALL. In other words: SO MUCH has been given to county/school/township workers, etc. that their HUGE salaries and HUGE benefits have OUT-RAN the tax base! Now with 10% of people out of work in this country - hence tax revenues down - and the COMMUNITY'S salaries and benefits being LOWERED while these public workers' salaries and benefits continue to GO HIGHER, the county/schools/villages ARE NOT SUSTAINING THEIR BUDGETS. And now the great people of this county cannot afford to pay more taxes even if they wished to do so! 
     This spend, spend, spend, TAX, TAX, TAX is called liberalism. This is what the liberal Democrats in the Congress/Senate/White House have done to our country. This is what the liberal FOOLS on the local government have done to us. Instead of negotiating correctly with unions and making wise decisions, THEY HAVE GIVEN THE FARM AWAY AND NOW THE BILL IS DUE AND GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER EVERY SECOND.  What do they do? Instead of DEMANDING that public employees - teachers and county workers and village workers - pay 50% or more of their HUGE benefits and reducing perks, they have, for example (think Berkshire Schools here for a good example) public employees only paying 10% of their share on benefits while many folks in the private sector are responsible for 50% OR THEIR ENTIRE BENEFIT PACKAGE! So why would a teacher who works for only nine months a year only pay 10%? Answer: WEAK negotiators who are liberals themselves. Well, folks THE PARTY IS OVER.  No more money is available.  As taxpayers, we are BLED OUT. 
     OK, let's look at compensation of public employees. It is WRONG that a teacher from, say dinky Berkshire, makes $70,000 plus a year and only pays 10% for benefits and be perked for SIMPLY COMING TO WORK or perked $4000 for not using an insurance policy! Wrong? Wrong only because the TAX BASE WILL NOT SUSTAIN THAT KIND OF A SALARY. Any MORON can see that paying and benefiting and perking workers like this in a dinky school district with a declining tax base will head to only one thing: DEFICIT. So why do it? 
     Now look at the county salaries below. You might want to sit down. You might want to get a barf bag scooted over near you. I will say this: I was very close to being PHYSICALLY ILL after reading these salaries. Why? Because they are NOT SUSTAINABLE! These types of BLOATED salaries WILL RUN US TAXPAYERS INTO THE POOR HOUSE. Folks, here's the facts: They only way we can continue to pay, say a sergeant in the Geauga County Sheriff's Department $96,110.00 per year (add to that HUGE figure $10,000 benefits/retirement pickups, not to mention OVERTIME and other perks!) is to hugely escalate the county sales tax (it's already 6.5%!!!!) and RAISE property taxes or put a income tax on. Look for all of the above soon.  THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO BALANCE THE BUDGET.    But the budget should NOT be balanced, rather the budget needs TRIMMED.  Some departments and employees need to be released. 
     This is sickening isn't it?  Here we have people out of work in this county and others barely scraping by and others losing benefits AND WE HAVE A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER WHO IS NOT EVEN THE TOP LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER IN THE COUNTY WITH A SALARY OF $96,110.00 PER YEAR - ACTUALLY COSTING THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS COUNTY OVER $115,000 PER YEAR!   And that's only ONE worker - there are 1,140 county employees in Geauga County!  MANY of these employees are earing salaries that are way, way over what like community members are making!  Why is this? 
     One more thing before we get to these outlandish county salaries. When I talked to the auditor's office, they told me that the total tax revenues for Geauga County were about $110 million per year. Nice piece of change. And the auditor's department said that the Geauga County Commissioners were directly in charge of $28.3 million per year. 
     Now let's get to the data below. Read and weep...  YOU WILL BE SHOCKED. All of the figures below come from the Geauga County Auditor's Office. These figures are public information, but they're not easy to get, nor is it easy to get a "read" on the taxing in this county... This report I am using is entitled: "Geauga County's Payroll System Top Wage Earners Report for 2009", so bear in mind these salaries are a YEAR OLD. I have retitled my arrangement of the figures as "Geauga County Report". Here goes:

Geauga County Report:

Total Number of Geauga County Employees...............1,140
Number of Employees Eligible For County Perk of "Fat Farm" Weight Reduction Award of $360 Per Year................1,135
Amount "Fat Farm" Perk Would Cost Geauga County Taxpayers If Every Eligible Employee Used Their $360 Perk............$408,600
Amount Of Estimated Deficit For Geauga County's 2010 Budget.......$838,000
Amount Of Estimated Deficit For Geauga County's 2011 Budget..... $1.4 million
Geauga County's Top Employee Wage Earner - James Adams, Executive Director of County Mental Health Board Yearly Salary...... $121,064.87 (does not include medical benefits, perks, retirement pickups or overtime - this will apply to all of the following salaries as well)
Annual Salary of David Joyce, County Prosecuting Attorney.... $115,843.00
Annual Salary of Robert Weisdack, County Health Commissioner.... $108,707.00
Annual Salary of Thomas Curtin, Director County Park Board.... $106,404.00
Annual Salary of Robert Phillips, County Engineer.... $101,774.03
Annual Salary of Donald Rice, Sp. Levy MRC General Superintendent....$100,886.82
Annual Salary of David Lair, County Administer Auditor.... $99,283.11
Annual Salary of Brian Johnston, Deputy Sergeant.... $96,110.00
Annual Salary of Scott Hildenbrand, Chief Deputy.....$95,626.48
Annual Salary of Keith McClintock, Deputy Director of County Park Board.... $95,590.29
Annual Salary of Michael Stone, County Engineer IV....$89,628.00
Annual Salary of Aaron Young, Park Planning Director....$89,059.98

OK, you just read your TOP 12 salary earners on the county payroll... Oh my! Now take look at some of these other salaries. These will BLOW your mind as well:

Annual Salary of Gary Gribbons, Lt. Sheriff.............. $87,943.21
Annual Salary of William Niehus, Lt. Sheriff.............$85,988.16
Annual Salary of Tracie Simon, Sp. Levy-MRC-School Instructor......$83,110.63
Annual Salary of Sallyanne Robbins, Sp. Levy-MRC-School Instructor...........$81,949.48
Annual Salary of Anita Wolinski, Sp. Levy-MRC-School Speech Therapist.... $80,242.99
Annual Salary of Stephen Decatur, ADP Board Chief Tech Officer...........$78,753.78 

     Hmmm.... Looks like it REALLY pays to be a teacher, a guy who gives nature walks or a cop, doesn't it? CAN YOU BELIEVE THESE OUTRAGEOUS SALARIES? And bear in mind these HUGE salaries do NOT include bonuses, perks, benefits, retirement pick-ups or other kudos like OVER-TIME, SPECIAL DETAILS, etc. Some of these people are making A LOT more than the above figures!  And they pay very little for their benefits and if not an elected official can get $360 for a gym membership or enrolling in a "fat farm" program (some of them REALLY need it!). 
     As I have said repeatedly, WE AS TAXPAYERS CANNOT SUSTAIN THESE HUGE SALARIES AND BENEFITS. NO HOW, NO WAY... Our county sales tax is already 6.5% (recently raised), so what's going to happen? Is Geauga County going to be like some of the counties in California with county sales taxes at 11% !!!! No way, no how. 
     As I've said before, some unneeded/luxury departments need to be extinguished. Over. Disbanded. As a taxpayer I have absolutely NO INTEREST in some dumbass who has chosen a lifestyle of misery due to over boozing or drugs. I have no interest in someone who can't keep their family together or handle their children. There are laws for all of this bad behavior and people SHOULD go to jail rather than be coddled... Why do we need games and card joints for the elderly? WHERE ARE THEIR FAMILIES? Cut down on the county health departments. Cut down on county mental health - you got someone in your family with mental problems, THEN PAY FOR THEIR CARE OUT OF YOUR POCKET AND QUIT DUMPING YOUR FAMIILY PROBLEMS ONTO THE COUNTY OR STATE. 
     I could go on and on. But this much I know is true and you MUST agree: If we're paying over $100,000 for a cop and $88,000 for a teacher, THEN SOMETHING IS BADLY BROKEN. Where are these goddamn commissioners on this? Why would ANYONE allow this to happen? Bottom line: THESE SALARIES AND BENEFITS CANNOT BE SUSTAINED.  Period.