► Canton Repository - 06/28/02 - Editorial - Perks questionable Print

Canton Repository - June 28, 2002

EDITORIALS

Perks questionable
Friday, June 28, 2002
 
State government is big and complex — no one can be familiar with all of
it. So we should all be thankful for gadflies such as David Palmer who
make a hobby of what reporters do for a living. As Copley Columbus
Bureau Chief Paul Kostyu notes in his column on the opposite page,
Palmer has used public records to document questionable purchases of
gasoline by several Ohio Supreme Court justices.
 
What we find even more interesting is the fact that taxpayers pay not
just for mileage for all seven justices between home and work, and for
drivers if they want them, but also for the vehicles that six of the
seven drive. We didn’t know that. Did you? We question, as Kostyu does,
why the justices — and who knows how many others on the state’s payroll
— should have all these perks, or fringe benefits, even in good times.
 
These are not good times, and when state cost-cutters say they’ve worked
their way through fat and muscle down to the bone, hurting some Ohioans
in the process, we have to wonder where they haven’t yet looked for
savings.
 
How about Columbus parking lots and state employees’ garages?