Minnesota’s government employees are looking for greener pastures in other parts of the country.
One employee will get a $100,000 raise by moving to California – almost enough to make up for the higher cost of living?
Now, local government employees are limited by a cap that adjusts for inflation each year. It started at 110 percent of the governor’s salary when it took effect in 2006. That means that, unless a local government has received special dispensation for a specific position, the most any local government employee can make is $144,711 — exactly Twa’s salary.
In part because of the change, about 60 Ramsey, Anoka, Dakota and Washington county employees, who are responsible for everything from dealing with information technology to running libraries, make more than Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
While different states have different ways of dealing with public employee salaries, no state has quite the system that exists in Minnesota. Minnesota has had limits on most local government salaries since 1977.
To some, a local salary cap simply makes sense.
To many in metro government, even the current higher cap creates a perverse system of compensation. It’s harder for local governments to hire and retain top-scale employees, and it takes away local elected officials’ power to decide what their employees should earn, they argue.
“When I tell people about the cap, they kind of look at you funny, like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ ” said Dave Childs, a former Minnetonka city manager and current assistant county manager in Washoe County, Nev. Childs is also an adviser for the International City/County Management Association.
