I'm a state employee. For some reason the public has decided to make state employees the scape goat for everything wrong in Delaware. The fact is that Delaware's dependence on Banks and revenue from housing transfer taxes is what was wrong with Delaware.

Frankly, I don't understand what you hope to accomplish with this web site. Are you saying that all state employees are over paid? If so, then what is a reasonable wage? If I'm going to hire a new school principal for my high school, what should I pay him? Should I pay him $8.50 an hour like they pay at Wal-Mart?

Since when did making an honest living become a crime? Years ago when the economy was on fire I remember people telling me I was crazy for working for the state. The concensus was that I could make twice what I was making by selling houses, or by working as a consultant. Instead I stuck it out and I'm glad I did.

Now that everything has gone wrong because of the stupidity of the politicians in Delaware, everybody wants to point fingers at state employees and say they are paid too much. So my question is, what is too much? How much should you pay professional people? Minimum wage? Or should we pass a law that says all employers much post the wage of their employees so that we can compare their salaries to state employee's salaries? Believe me, there are plenty of people out there that make a ton more money than state employees. Just compare Del-Tech to Wilmington University. Del-Tech's president is paid around $350K, Wilmington's president is paid over $3 million. So tell me who is underpaid?

Your web site is totally useless. All it does is stir up resentment and anger. If you want to accomplish something positive, how about publishing the names of legislators who voted for every stupid purchase Delaware has made in the last 16 years. Why don't you blame the people who causes the problems in Delaware?

I write also as a state employee.
The only reason I do is to tell you that your site sucks! You worked here in legislative hall and collected your paycheck.
obviously you were over paid and still have not found a real job?
I can tell you I have given over 100% every single day for almost 33 years and have earned every penny that the State of Delaware has ever paid me.
Belive me I could have made much more in the private sector and contrary to popular belief did not stay here beacuse of our wonderful benefits. Ours were worse than any government entity in the State.
I really hope you get satisfaction out of this whatever you call it?
I also hope you grow up someday and find a real profession. Can you please tell me the title of your real job and your salary?
The sour people of the world will leave this earth lonely and stay that way. Debby

No one at CRI is trying to make the obviously outrageous claim that all state employees are overpaid or underworked. Clearly the vast majority of state and local workers do take their jobs seriously and put forth more than 100% of their effort daily in their tasks. Frankly, it's good to see that workers care enough to respond to this website, albeit in an often inflammatory manner.

@DarkSideinDE: You make some good suggestions for things that might improve the site, and I can assure you they will be taken to heart. Nevertheless, please don't understate the importance of having a database that details the government's spending habits. The public has a right to know where its money is going, and you, as a member of the public, ought to take full advantage of exploring some ways in which your employer wastes money that could be going to better uses. The amount spent on water bottle or floppy disks alone (two items highlighted in recent CRI blog posts or online articles) is money that could be spent on education or any number of more important areas.

If you think that state employees are underpaid, then use this site to demonstrate your point. It is not the purpose of CRI to establish what the wage of state workers should be, but to impose a quasi-competitive structure onto an otherwise veiled institution. If state workers are paid the right amount, then this website will not affect the way voters perceive their salaries. If there are excesses, then it is the hope that by bringing them to light that they can be eliminated. Contrarily, if there are deficiencies in state worker pay in comparison to their product, then this site need not be used to cut those salaries at all! If there are workers who deserve more and produce a service valued more highly than they are compensated for, then no one could argue that they should not be justly rewarded for their services.

The fact that resentment will build is unfortunately a necessary pathway toward a better managed government. Not everyone has the time or the resources to obtain FOIA information and to plod through all of the data to find the outrageous excesses in Delaware's government. By providing this pre-established list of as much information as can be produced, CRI is simply cutting down the number of barriers between the typical voter and the information he or she needs to make an informed decision at the polls. Voters cannot make the best choices without the most comprehensive information, and that is all that this site seeks to provide.

@Debby: As stated, even though your personal attacks are unappreciated, it is good to see that you've taken such a strong interest in the site and provided feedback. I have no doubt that you have earned your paychecks from Delaware, but as stated above, this site is not meant to attack the average worker or to suggest that he or she made too much money from the state. The goal is to decrease wasteful spending, a goal I am sure you join CRI in supporting.

Finally, I address this point only because I fail to see its real impact: does the fact that any state worker could have made more in the private sector necessarily have any implications for how they are paid now? Perhaps it could be used as a heuristic to determine exactly how much that employee is worth when performing comparable tasks for the private industry, but doesn't the mere fact that there are discrepancies in how government salaries work just demonstrate more clearly why a site like this is needed? If the state can grossly underpay its workers relative to their skill sets, then it stands to reason that they can also grossly overpay them, since the real problem appears to be a genuine lack of ability to gauge how much each worker is worth.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions!

I'm a County employee and I agree with Debby and Darkside! What is your name and salary. You could've posted positions and amounts. Publishing names is pure harrassment.

I agree with notfair. Names needn't be published. All this does is cause rancor among employees who will use this site to compare their salaries to those of people they dislike. Trust me, this has already happened since I learned of this site today! Thanks.