Buy out government workers, don’t bailout local governments 💰

There is a lot of talk about bailing out state and local government. Instead of government bailouts, I think a better idea would be the federal government to offer buy outs to state and local government workers.

The federal government could offer a generous one time payment of $250,000 to any government worker who voluntarily leave public service for five years. To take this funding, the locality or state would be mandated not to fill the position for five years or risk eligiblity for other federal grants. The worker could find a job in the private sector, retire or live frugally for a few years just on the cash payment alone.

The idea would be to encourage states and localities to permanently shrink their payrolls while protecting and holding harmless government workers in their transition to the private sector. Workers shouldn’t suffer when government needs to downsize. For too long states and local officials haven’t made the hard decision to downsize government – but quarter million dollars a worker by the federal government could be a big incentive.