So far, I just can't see
An alert reader points me to this story, in which KGW takes a close look at how many Oregon state employees are phoning it in from home – and their home is way out of state. The numbers are pretty amazing.
According to the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, 7,691 state employees are working remotely full-time. Almost 500 more work remotely full-time and live outside of the state....
- The Oregon Department of Human Services has 2,446 people working remotely in Oregon and another 157 working from other states.
- The Oregon Health Authority has 1,281 workers who are working remotely in Oregon and 99 who live in other states.
But don't worry, folks. The bobbleheads in the Legislature are thinking about maybe fixing it so that the state stops paying the out-of-staters' travel expenses when they lower themselves to show up in Oregon for a meeting. I doubt that even that wimpy gesture will actually be made, given the stranglehold that the public employee unions have on politics here.
But if they were really serious about getting these people back in their offices, this would be the ticket: Pass a law that all compensation earned by an employee of the state, or any political subdivision of the state (such as counties, cities, transit districts, and school boards), is automatically Oregon-source income, subject to Oregon income tax, no matter where the employee was when she did the work.
Either that, or reduce all their pay by the equivalent of the Oregon income tax.
Ha! Ha! Don't hold your breath on any of that happening. The PERS-ecution of the taxpayers can't be stopped.
This isn’t about getting state employees back to their offices. It’s about the expense of paying them to travel back to Oregon for work. The solution is simple - pass a law that requires employees living outside of a certain distance from State having to pay their work-related travel costs. This distance requirement protects employees who reside in SW Washington who work remotely and already commute into work for meetings and are not reimbursed for their mileage costs.
ReplyDeleteDo you know that they are reimbursed for traveling to Oregon for work? From what I know, your office location is set (Salem, PDX, ect.) and whatever it takes to get to that location for meetings and such is on the employee's dime as it is a commute.
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