Unprecedented readership of this article first posted March 4 causes me to bring it back to the top. I encourage people among the thousands of new readers to return and look through almost 1,500 articles published during the past three years.

Helping manage the BC government's war on school teachers and public education is Deputy Minister of Education. He is a long time senior bureaucrat.Public accounts show his salary in fiscal 2006 was $164,085. In fiscal 2011, it was $228,942, an increase of 40% in five years. During that period, Gorman's expenses were $136,616. Gorman looks positively frugal compared to his colleague. The Education Ministry's Superintendent of Achievement incurred expenses of $432,234 from 2006 to 2011. Spending more than $6,000 a month on lunches and such can't leave much time for business but Davis is consistent, if nothing else., Premier Photo-Op's Deputy Minister, has also done well in the land of not net zero. Public accounts show that Dyble's salary rose from $161,455 in fiscal 2006 to $239,121 in 2011. That was a 48% gain in five years but, the good news for Dyble is that his salary was bumped again in March 2011. His new rate is $310,000, about double what he earned five years ago., DM in the Health Ministry, had his salary go to $259,531 in fiscal 2010, 42% more than he earned in 2008. Whitmarsh charged additional personal expenses of $168,410 in the last four years., ADM for the Education Ministry's Resource Management division earned $106,172 in fiscal 2009 and $172,381 in 2011, a growth of 62%., ADM for Business, Technology & Online Services Division, saw her salary grow 42% from 2006 to 2011., long a senior Liberal bureaucrat, got 11% this year, a raise that makes his salary 42% more than it was in 2006., DM Advanced Education, has enjoyed steady increases in each of the last few years, including 27% ($47,000) in 2012. Since 2006, her earnings are up 115%., Associate Deputy Minister in Finance, scored healthy increases each year, moving her salary up by $86,459 or 78% from 2006 to 2011.from the Solicitor General's ministry got a $59,760 (42%) raise between 2007 and 2009., DM of Aboriginal Relations earned $180,605 in fiscal 2011 but his salary in 2012 is $225,000, a one year increase of 25%., ADM, Technology Solutions had to make do with a 9% raise in 2011, a year of net-zero for non-mandarins., ADM, Integrated Workplace Solutions took raises in 2010 and 2011 totalling 14%., ADM/EFO, Corporate Services, did a little better, his 2011 raise was 29%., DM of Agriculture, has had three straight years of non net zero, adding $54,385 (32%), making his 2011 salary $224,229., Deputy Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, scored 8% this year, a raise of almost $20,000., Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government got a raise of 6.5% in 2011, about $1,200 a month., Deputy Minister, Children and Family Development, has a $2,000 a month raise in 2011, 13% in the Liberal government's world of not net zero., DM in the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, has gained 18% over the last three years., DM of Labour, got a $1,200 a month bump in 2011. Her 2011 salary of $235,000 is 55% more than the Liberal government paid her in 2009., Associate Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat, earns 23% more in the current year than she earned in fiscal 2011., DM in the Ministry of Finance, has had a particularly pleasant ride. This year, his salary rose 7% to $250,000, double what he was paid in 2006. Milburn also does better than most when it comes to expense accounts. Over a number of years, he averaged $3,000 a month. While that is not interritory, it is still an amount that shows remarkable disdain for taxpayers.There is no austerity among the policy makers in Victoria. Keep in mind that their pensions and ancillary benefits are extravagant compared with those of ordinary public servants. Pensions for senior staff today are particularly extraordinary in relation to pensions paid a generation ago. There are few constraints because, among the mandarins, one person's gain quickly spreads to the rest. So, if the Finance Ministry decides that their Deputy Minister, Assistant Deputy Ministers and Associate Deputy Ministers are worth two, three or four hundred thousand a year, soon every ministry is paying like amounts.Even cabinet ministers and MLA's start to think they should be paid as much or more than those they supposedly direct. There is no one willing to say no.