PLAYING RADIO CRITIC ON TAXPAYERS' DIME

How many of you can say you received $7,158 in raises between 2007 and 2010? And with taxpayers footing the bill? Robert C. Douglas can make that claim. According to ctsunlight.org, Douglas, who works for the House Democrats, was paid $70,022 in 2007 and $77,158 in 2010, not counting other state benefits. In other words, while Connecticut's budget was in a tailspin, Douglas was raking in the taxpayers' money.

Douglas emails me on occasion. After initially opening his correspondence, I stopped a few years ago. Usually the emails contain criticisms of my conservative viewpoints and the radio company for which I work. I did not have problems with the criticism, although I'll debate any liberal at any time. I stopped reading his emails, because I felt his time was a gross waste of the taxpayers' money, and I did not want to be an accomplice by wasting my time. That was until, Wednesday, March 30, when I decided to open his latest emails.

As Connecticut faces a dire financial situation, Douglas apparently has the time to play radio critic on the taxpayers' dime. At 2:08 pm, came an email signed by Douglas, chiding radio station personnel over recent programming changes made by our parent company. At 2:29 pm, Douglas dashed off another email, this time with an attachment from the George Soros-funded Media Matters and its coverage of the programming changes. (This time I saved the emails as
proof.)

Is this the best use of taxpayers' money, paying someone to be radio critic? The legislature is at the height of its session and in the middle of the afternoon, Douglas has time to search computer websites and email a radio station, in a chiding manner no less?

During a time, when public sector union positions have come under scrutiny and the unions remind us how important each and every job is, one must ask, how important is Douglas' job? What else is included in his package, besides the annual $77,158? What do his benefits cost? Does he get paid for mileage? Is that mileage compensation part of the calculation used to determine his pension?

When all is included, taxpayers are probably on the hook for $100,000 annually to underwrite a job designed to criticize radio stations. As the conversation turns to government waste, positions occupied by the likes of a Douglas, should be the first to go.