Taypayer Handouts and Ripoffs

Freedom and initiative are being replaced by ever higher taxation, regulation and centralization of power in Washington. Our economy is now stagnant and our standard of living is declining. Each year government takes a bigger share of our earnings, employs more and more of our people, enacts more rules that strangle our economy, and controls more and more of our lives. In the enjoyment of plenty, have Americans lost the memory of freedom? When citizens are willing to sacrifice their liberty for security, they will have neither liberty nor security and will soon find themselves living under tyranny. [Ellen Sauerbrey, The Spark That Has Triggered Rebellion, American Thinker, September 13, 2009]

Proposal Continues Crackdown on Recruitment and Other Bonuses for Federal Employees

Taxpayers spent $284.8 million on recruitment, relocation and retention incentives in 2008, a 37 percent increase from 2007, when they spent $207.7 million. The number of federal workers receiving bonuses at taxpayers' expense also jumped from 32,484 in 2007 to 39,512 in 2008, an increase of 22 percent.

January 7, 2011

Government Executive - Office of Personnel Management on Friday proposed rules aimed at helping federal agencies better control costs of incentive payments to recruit, relocate and retain talented employees.

Under the draft regulations, agencies would be required to annually review recruitment bonuses for hard-to-fill categories of jobs to ensure the payments were still warranted, and an authorized official would have to sign off on the assessment. Agencies also would have to drop the incentives for new hires if officials found it would no longer be difficult to attract candidates for that type of position.

The proposal, published in the Federal Register, would shore up relocation payments by requiring employees to live in the new locale for the duration of their service agreement, rather than simply set up a residence there at the outset. And it would require agencies to review all retention incentives at least annually.

OPM also suggested making succession planning something officials should consider when deciding whether to grant retention payments.

"Succession planning is a critical success factor in strategic workforce analysis, planning and decision-making," the proposed rules stated.

The draft rules are part of an ongoing effort to rein in growth of so-called 3Rs payments since the enactment of the 2004 Federal Workforce Flexibility Act, which expanded agencies' authority to offer the incentives. According to OPM data, agencies spent $284.8 million on recruitment, relocation and retention incentives in 2008, a 37 percent increase from 2007, when they spent $207.7 million. The number of employees receiving bonuses also jumped from 32,484 in 2007 to 39,512 in 2008, an increase of 22 percent; 2007 was the first year after enactment of the Workforce Flexibility Act for which figures on use of all three types of incentives were available.

In May 2009, OPM Director John Berry instructed agency chief human capital officers and human resources directors to take a hard look at these bonuses, and that summer he established a working group of agency compensation specialists to brainstorm stronger oversight mechanisms. The draft rule builds off the group's recommendations and Berry's directive.

OPM will accept feedback on the proposal through March 8. Comments can be submitted through Regulations.gov (using the RIN number 3206-AM13), or by mail to:

Jerome D. Mikowicz, Deputy Associate Director for Pay and Leave
Office of Personnel Management, Room 7H31
1900 E St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20415-8200

~~~

From federaljobs.net, "Chapter One, Introduction to Government Employment," we learn: "There are many reasons to consider federal employment. The average annual federal worker's compensations pay plus benefits is $106,871 compared to $53,288 for the private sector. Student loan payoff, relocation, and cash incentives are now offered for hard-to-fill positions, and the benefits package is exceptional" -- by which they mean, "more than anybody makes in the private sector that you know, unless you are already rich, in which case you are not reading this, so it doesn't matter to you anyway, but you probably aren't, so it does." It's just too bad that government workers are a deadweight loss, as they produce no profit from their labors with which to pay their bloated salary and benefits packages, and they produce profit-lowering costs for those who must obey their commands, sort of a lose-lose situation. But then again, without them destroying the economy and the currency, we citizens could not make money by investing in gold and making a fortune when it soars as a result! - Government Gone Insane, Safehaven.com, January 16, 2009

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. - Justice Litle, Is America’s Economic Recovery on the Whole Based on a Rotten Sham?, Daily Markets, April 20, 2010


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