( - promoted by Carnacki)
Really delegates, do the voters really need to be misled again? Recently in this election cycle, and with evidence readily available back to 2008, we're being assaulted with misinformation campaigns which I can only assume is intended to sway voters. I know we hear reports regularly of one politician or another lying to us, but these are local representatives in my community so these issues just a little closer to home than usual.
The incidents in question are as follows: for Delegate Overington, there was an article in the Martinsburg Journal on 10/4 in which he claims "the state mandates that a flagman be compensated at $34 per hour" while private industry pays $15 per hour. Delegate Jonathan Miller has made repeated claims of $32 and $35 per hour; first in The State Journal on 06/05/08, and then more recently on 10/01 on the candidate debate on WEPM and then on 10/06 in a Letter to the Editor in the Martinsburg Journal. In these instances he claims private or state workers get paid $10-$15 per hour. So the question I have is this: do our delegates understand the issue and willingly mislead us or do they just not understand the issue?
First, prevailing wage: this is what our state pays to contracted workers on state projects. There's two parts to this payout; first is the per-hour wage paid to the worker, and the second is the per-hour value paid toward the worker's fringe benefits (paid vacation, health care, etc). To see these rates, anyone can check the Secretary of State's website. There are two categories to search, the 'Building and Construction' or the 'Heavy and Highway' rates. Let's examine the most recent (2010) and most expensive (Heavy and Highway) rate sheets. We'll focus on a Laborer Class III - better known as the flagman - since this seems to be the example tossed around in the argument. According to the rate sheets, our flagman makes $22.76 per hour. That's right, $22.76 per hour, right out in plain sight for all to see. This is not the $30 to $35 hourly rate that has been repeatedly quoted by our sitting delegates unless they include the value of the fringe benefits at $11.95 per hour. $22.76 is also, higher than the private sector wage quoted by the delegates, but can we believe that? As I've been taught in school and my professional life, I tend to not believe numbers without references or data to back them up.
So, why are we presented the skewed numbers? Does anyone really report their fringe benefits along with their wage when discussing pay? I surely do not, and I'm not sure I've ever met someone who does. So is it intentional or are they misinformed? I'd hate to feel we're electing representatives who lie, but at the same time I also hope we elect individuals who can properly collect, present, and document the information they present. We, as voters, need to carefully evaluate all candidates on all of the issues before November 2 and be sure we're voting for candidates who will give us the whole truth, and not just what they want us to see. |
