Your Tax Dollars at Work

The Syracuse Post-Standard continues to be one of Central New York's few real newspapers, with reporters who actually research and report on news that actually affects the lives of Central New Yorkers. Sunday they reported on the fact that our legislators protect union workers in group residential homes by insisting that the facilities in which they work stay open, despite the fact that there is no one there to serve. Here's a report on the center in Auburn:

Two girls live in the 20,000-square-foot, 24-bed center.

Twenty-five state workers care for them.

By Wednesday, the center will be empty; the girls will return to their families.

But the staff will remain. Rather than teach, counsel and supervise residents, staff members fill their days taking inventory, moving equipment around and catching up on training, acting director Jennifer Hunter said.

Auburn's story is far from unique. Across the state, staff at juvenile detention centers outnumber residents by double digits.

Paul has long been convinced that a simple accounting for waste could eliminate the state's deficit. This article is one step toward that, but only if the legislature listens.

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