The Arizona Republic

It’s not the pay raises, Governor, it’s the arrogance

- ed.montini @arizonarep­ublic.com Tel: 602-444-8978

It’s not the money.

I mean, it is. But that’s not the worst of it.

It’s the arrogance.

That’s the worst part.

But ... was that arrogance justified?

Gov. Doug Ducey, who has all the money he needs, who was able to send his kids to private school, decided that the people who teach your kids, and who taught my kids, at public schools, didn’t need a raise.

Not a real one, anyway.

Not like what his people deserved. Ducey decided that the people who work most closely with him, who make him look good, who tell him he’s great, who listen to what he has to say and do what he asks them to do, deserve a big raise.

Not with money that comes out of his pocket, however, but with money that comes out of your pocket. Arrogance.

Is there any other word for it?

Or is that only looking at things from our perspectiv­e?

The governor seems to have a completely different view.

The question is: How?

I suppose it could be that Ducey figures since you handed him the keys to the big Ninth Floor office at the state Capitol, and you handed over your wallet, what did you expect?

If you hadn’t wanted him to take care of his closest and most loyal lackeys why would you have done that?

And if you had wanted teachers to get a raise instead of Ducey giving a bunch of your money to the already well-paid sycophants on the governor’s staff, why didn’t you elect someone else?

Right?

He could see things that way, which would make this whole situation very puzzling to him. Why the hubbub?

After all, you didn’t tell him, directly, that when he talked about the state having a tight budget and cutting back on spending and keeping expenses under control, that you expected it to carry over to his inner circle.

By now the governor has probably heard from some of you who read the article by The Arizona Republic’s Craig Harris, in which he pointed out all those whopping raises for all of those Ducey groupies.

Increased salaries. Big raises. Bonuses. Merit increases.

Wow.

More than a few of you probably sent angry messages to the governor about that.

This quite possibly confuses Ducey. I picture him wondering out loud: “I’m not a mind reader. If they didn’t want me to do stuff like this why did they vote for me?”

It could be, of course, that voters believed Ducey when he said that as governor he would represent ALL residents of the state. Equally. Ha!

I mean, can he help it if we actually fell for that?

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States