Lawmakers supporting this year's state bureaucrat pay increase argue that state employees "have suffered enough" in recent budgets. But the government's own statistics show the opposite to be true: taxpayers have suffered far more than "enough" while government employee pay and benefit levels keep rising.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics documents that government employee benefits cost twice as much as full-time, private sector benefits. What accounts for the difference? Consider the jackpot benefits that many government employees receive:

*    Public school employees contribute an average of 4.2% to their health care plans while private sector citizens pay an average of 22% of their own health care costs.
*    Expensive "defined benefit" retirement plans are almost non-existent in the private sector, but are commonplace for public school, public university and local government employees.
*    Macomb County government employees enjoy a taxpayer-paid retirement benefit that allows many to retire at the age of 50!

There was a time when government employees enjoyed better benefits and job security than most taxpayers, but were paid less than comparable private sector employees. Not anymore. Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics document that today, the government class enjoys higher salaries, richer benefits and far better job security than the citizens they are supposed to be serving.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that government employees are much more bullish about the economy than private sector employees. A national poll conducted in December by the survey firm Rasmussen Reports found that 24% of government employees rated the economy as good or excellent while just 9% of those in the private sector were so upbeat.

The `public servants' have become the masters over taxpayers. And it is costing your family plenty.