Click here to see a good example of how your state government is spending your money.

For those disinclined to click, the headline reads: “State employee: I get $93,803 for no work.”

If I were a taxpaying New Yorker I would be miffed that a state employee was getting paid $93,803 to work.

Of course, defenders of state government employees will dismiss this story as an anomaly.  But a key paragraph in the story indicates why societal drains like Mr. Hinton are more common in state bureaucracies than one might think:

“He [Hinton] said he has essentially done very little work since about 1999 but has a competitive civil service position so that he is protected should layoffs occur and cannot be fired without due process, unlike the political appointees occupying posts he seeks.”

Having worked in the “management” side of state government, I can attest that due process for state employees = incompetence insurance.