B.C. provincial and municipal governments recently released their 2008 public sector compensation reports, demonstrating just why taxpayers need more transparent government. Removing the veil of salary secrecy clearly showed that public sector salaries have skyrocketed to levels beyond taxpayers’ ability to pay.

The salary revelations were riddled with examples of taxpayer abuse. At the provincial level, pay packages for BC Rail brass are the most blatant examples. Four people make over $100,000 per year to run a 40-kilometer-long railway. BC Rail's CEO made a $275,000 base salary in 2008 but with perks, including a bonus, made $494,182. The government took a strong stand recently and stopped paying his golf club membership. If that's the government's idea of cost cutting, taxpayers are in big trouble.

Municipal employees appear to be doing what they can to hit the pay jackpot as well. Employees making more than $100,000 per year in the District of West Vancouver offices rose from 134 in 2007 to 161 in 2008. Interestingly, in 2000, West Vancouver had only 41 employees paid more than $75,000. This trend can be found in municipalities all over the province.

B.C. taxpayers are being saddled with a public sector wage burden far in excess of their ability to fund it. In B.C. average annual salaries are only $42,000, and average family incomes are about $85,000. The burden on taxpayers will be even greater in the future because of the pension liability these higher salaries create for our children and grandchildren.

How does government justify such a costly public sector?

Our political leaders bleat that because government handles multi-million dollar budgets, taxpayers need to attract the best and the brightest to government. That claim, however, is lame.

Bureaucrats might handle multi-million dollar budgets, but they only have to find a way to spend them, not how to fund them. Government revenue comes from taxation, and taxpayers have to pay taxes whether they want what the government provides or not. In the private sector, entrepreneurs have to produce something that people will freely choose to buy. If consumers choose not to buy, entrepreneurs go out of business because they won't generate enough revenue to cover their costs. In contrast, the B.C. government can pay half a million dollars to a CEO to run a 40-kilometer-long railroad and not pay a financial penalty for it. The penalty is paid by taxpayers.

Even worse, when the government competes for scarce labour resources, it forces up labour costs and the taxes to pay for them. This makes it more difficult for entrepreneurs to compete in the labour market and find people with the skills to help them survive.

It should come as no surprise that our governing class has lost touch with taxpayers' ability to fund these pay bonanzas. B.C. politicians gave themselves a 30 per cent pay increase and brought back gold-plated pensions for themselves, so have little moral authority to hold down the excessive pay and perk demands of public sector workers, at any level of the bureaucracy.

Bureaucrat salaries have spiraled far beyond the incomes of taxpayers. While the government should be commended for greater transparency, it must now become accountable to those left to pick up the tab for out-of-control salaries. Public sector salaries must be brought in line with taxpayers’ ability to pay.