Wasteful Government Tricks

No, not that wasteful government trick.

You just can not make this up:

"As he tells it, Randall Hinton is paid $93,803 a year to do nothing...His work agenda involves placing his feet up on his desk, staring out his office window and counting cars on the New York State Thruway. He arrives at 7:30 a.m., leaves at 3:30 p.m., sees no one and talks to no one."

And just what is his (ostensible) job?

Why, he's the "director of investigations for the Insurance Fund." To hear Mr H tell it, he's not allowed to actually investigate anything, though, because he had sued the state for discrimination. Although that suit has long-since been settled, this Investigator-without-Portfolio has been idled, forced to spend long, lonely days staring out the window, perhaps contemplating life "on the outside."

By my reckoning, that amounts to over $50 an hour to twiddle his thumbs, all on the taxpayer's dime. Nice work if you can get it.

And just what is the State Insurance Fund actually for? Glad you asked:

"It exists to provide workers' compensation and disability policies as an insurer of last resort to 190,000 employers statewide."

Hmm. I wonder if Julie knows about this.

The crux of the matter seems to be that Mr Hinton believes that he's being discriminated against for having had the gall to sue a GOP-led administration. This falls apart, of course, since Democratic Governor and Man-About-Town Eliot Spitzer elected to continue the charade.

Meantime, New York taxpayers continue to fork over almost $8,000 a month for this gentleman to, well, you know.