Current events spur pop quiz on local economics

Good morning class, and welcome to Dr. Bob's quiz in Contemporary Culture. Here are today's essay subjects:

ECONOMICS/ETHICS 101: The University of Kentucky's board of trustees eliminated 188 positions, froze the pay of remaining faculty and staff -- and then voted to give President Lee Todd a $95,000 bonus to increase his total compensation to almost $550,000.

Todd did pass on another $50,000 he could have received, and followed that up by saying, "There is pain here no one seeks and no one deserves. In it lies the sacrifice of our students, who will pay more tuition. In it, too, lies the sacrifice of our faculty and staff, who will not see pay raises."

QUESTION (30 points): Todd got a compensation package pay raise of roughly 20 percent while student tuition was only increased 9 percent. To be fair, shouldn't student tuition also have been increased at least 20 percent to help the school pay Todd's package? Would that better equalize everyone's pain and sacrifice?

ECONOMICS 210: Rohm and Haas announced it will cut about 220 jobs from its Rubbertown plant -- many of them that pay about $60,000 to $70,000 a year, plus good benefits.

The worker's union has promised to work diligently to lessen the impact of the layoff, and city officials said the local work force development agency, Kentuckiana Works, will be available to help workers find new jobs and to retrain them for future careers.

QUESTION (20 points): Compile a list of at least 10 local industries that now have job openings and are paying $60,000 to $70,000 a year -- plus great benefits. Compile a list of potential overseas countries where Rohm and Haas might relocate those jobs -- and Tennessee does not count. What is your opinion of the "Silver Lining" theory of job reduction that says the jobs are a loss, but geez, the western Louisville air might now be cleaner?

HOOSIER JUDICIAL ETHICS/GENIUS: The Clark County Council in Southern Indiana has scheduled a special meeting next week to reconsider its approval of hiring moves made by newly appointed Circuit Judge Abe Navarro.

Those moves would include firing two experienced female clerks to hire Clark County Republican Chairman David Buskill as court administrator, and offering a bailiff's job to Jeremy Snelling, son of Republican County Councilman Monty Snelling -- who then voted to increase his son's salary $6,000 above the going rate.

QUESTION (20 points): With Father's Day only recently in our rear-view mirror, don't you believe Monty Snelling had every right to get his kid a job with a pay raise? And just because Navarro was appointed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, don't you find the complaint of politics in this matter to be petty and unfounded? Petty politics has always been at the core of Clark County life. Why change it now?

ECONOMICS/MULTIPLE CHOICE: In a time of budget cutting and teeth gnashing at every government level, we just learned more than $19.5 million in federal grants has been awarded to, but never claimed by, the Louisville Metro Department of Housing and Family Services in the past 13 years.

These monies could have been used to help people weatherize and rehabilitate homes, or even purchase homes. The general reaction among all parties responsible for not spending $19.5 million was: "Oops. We gotta try harder."

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/

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Current events spur pop quiz on local economics