Remember how, back on this post, I pointed out that Dr. Ray Greenberg was particularly (and singularly) courageous to step out and speak truth in the face of our governor’s campaign to make us think South Carolina spends too much on such things as MUSC?
I suggested that the governor himself has to be all polite and good-coppish in light of such a challenge, while his staffers can take the gloves off a bit if they need to — remember?
Well, I reckoned without ex-staffers, who are totally unrestrained in attacking Dr. Greenberg for daring to speak truth to power.
Stay tuned. There will undoubtedly be more.
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Dr. Greenburg and a lot of other bureaucrats have been increasing their fiefdoms at a rate much faster than the growth of the economy and of the incomes of taxpayers. Now, the correction is here, and they will have to actually reduce expenditures, not just reduce the amount of the annual increase and whine about “Draconian cuts”.
So which of the specific charges that Will Folks has leveled against Dr. Greenburg are untrue, Brad? Which have you investigated?
Does Dr. Greenburg make $750K in salary while planning to furlough MUSC employees? True or untrue?
Does Dr. Greenburg plan to continue the MUSC sponsored trip to the Virgin Islands at the same time he’s whining about budget cuts?
Honestly, Brad, are you even interested in facts anymore?
Brad, rather than a veiled attack on the governor about spending at MUSC, why not discuss the details of the spending and explain why it’s a good thing for the taxpayers. You’re coming across as a whiner and frankly even it you’re right most people are starting to tune it out.
FITSNews is way better than The State. Greenberg is a just a fat cat bureaucrat, and Brad Warthen is just an old media enabler for the establishment.
Brad, why not report on what all of us what to know, how much longer The State will be around due to the poor economy and the poor management of this puppy trainer of a newspaper? I guess it’s too easy to keep beating that dead horse pet topic of yours… Governor Sanford.
You remind me of the longtime editor of my hometown newspaper. He’s gotten so lazy about editorials, that he’s now mostly printing his favorite past editorials. We’ve read it once, he thinks we have as much interest to read it a second time as he does… sound familiar?
Bud, Lee, Doug, Karen, etc…are one track ponies. I can’t imagine people more boring, more predictable than they…
Brad, you need some new posters. These old hacks are old news…and I mean Old News.
Ha ha…
When Greenberg does it, it’s “speaking truth to power” and “setting the record straight.”
However, if a conservative were to do it…
Tim,
The expression is “one trick pony” not “one track pony”.
Anyway, guilty as charged. Any time Brad takes the side of more inefficient and wasteful government, I will be there to respond with facts.
Tim, I don’t like the governor. He comes across as arrogant and ineffective. But Brad keeps on and on with his vendeta against the man without ever challenging him with facts, figures and evidence. It is an assault without substance and it’s growing redundant, boring and above all, counterproductive. Heck, I’m even starting to have sympathy for the Governor. Brad needs to be called on his hypocritical attacks. Just check out his editorial in the State today. He’s getting onto the NYT for attacking Bush. Yet he pretty much does the same with Sanford.
Plus the lead editorial in today’s paper says we need total overhaul of the tax system in South Carolina but somehow neglects to mention The State’s own preferable treatment by those same tax laws.
Start small, Brad. Call for an elimination of all the sales tax exemptions like those for newspapers. Put some skin in the game.
I for one LOVE the phrase “one track pony.” a new and innovative take on the old cliché.
Doug, we’ve discussed that. As far as I can see — being as objective as I can possibly be, given that we’re speaking of MY industry (and how objective do you consider that to be) — the sales tax exemption on newspapers is just like most of the others. No better, no worse. Our position is that all of them should be on the table as part of comprehensive tax reform.
The only exemption that stands out as particularly egregious — and we have said so — is the one on cars. Perhaps you have some arguments to present that would place the one on newspapers in the same category. If so, present them. It is my opinion that it’s a fairly typical exemption, and I’m not going to say otherwise just to show off for y’all. And as I say, all of them should be on the table, and lawmakers have to be willing to infuriate all sorts of interest groups, including newspaper publishers (a group to which I don’t belong, by the way, a fact Doug seems to overlook in his demand that I speak for the industry), if they’re going to come up with a fair and effective system of taxation.
Basically, what Doug is doing here is the same as those throwing bombs at MUSC are doing: Raising distractions. It’s what’s wrong with politics today. Since you can’t make a rational argument that the state’s medical university is a waste of money, you concentrate on things that might (if true) cause small-minded people to have an emotional reaction against it, and thereby agree with the demagogue who wants to tear the institution down. Airplane rides and other trivia.
And Tim — I would go out and hire some new commenters, but these are the best I can get for the money. But I was curious — why did you lump Karen in with the boys?
If we are going to have a sales tax on automobiles, airplanes and boats, then it should only be when sold by a retailer, not wholesalers, and not private sales between individuals.
Also, the property tax on automobiles and all other property needs to be abolished.
I think putting a sales tax on cars would be good, because it would force the rates to be reduced in order to not completely kill retail sales of cars, the rates are too high on everything.
To the poster above. Yes, the Greenberg salary figure is correct. This is not news to anyone in SC if they are informed. Acting surprised is revealing significant ignorance. Yes, Greenberg makes almost $1M and he is cutting the pay of MUSC employees who are barely making ends meet. To be specific, he is taking $$ from housekeeping, secretaries, maintenance workers, etc., the lowest paid tier at MUSC. Also, highly paid employees receive no pay cut PERIOD, although there is language to suggest that they are volunteering something. I know of no one who has volunteered a paycut.
Also, the term furlough is misleading. The $$ is coming out of the checks whether you take a day off or not. It is really not a furlough but a pay cut.
Brad,
All it would have taken would be one sentence in your tax reform editorial. Something like “We would welcome also the opportunity to remove the sales tax exemptions that allow The State to sell its product without the burden of taxation.”
Do you really want me to try to make the case that MUSC wastes taxpayer money? Have you done any research on that matter to know for sure that it doesn’t? Or do I need to go over to Will Folks’ website to get facts?
Beautiful People don’t waste money, Doug.
And if they do, it is okay because they have good intentions.
Come on over to Sic Willie’s, Doug.
The entitlement-in-progress here = nauseating.
You too, Lee, Bud…**but**: Word of Warning:
Pop culture/real world lens is W-I-D-E open, even tho some of us would prefer it shut.
As an employee of MUSC, it is important that the public understand the inside view of the recent furloughs at MUSC. First, the furloughs only affected non-clinical workers. We are short on these personnel at the current time and have been asked to turn off the lights and computers when possible. The reasons that we are in this situation:
1. The state budget cuts – necessary due to decreased tax revenue.
2. Poor performance at the new Ashley River Tower (ART). The ART has not been able to generate revenue. It is really nice but probably too nice for a public hospital. Might perform better as a hotel given the waterway views!
The first letter suggested that the physicians take a pay cut prior to the support staff at the university. First, the public should know that the average physician salary at MUSC is about 125,000 to 150,000. Now, this sounds high. However, it is important to realize that this is about 1/3rd of the average salary of a physician (with similar number of years in practice) practicing in the community. Thus, MUSC physicians already take a 2/3rd’s pay cut to serve the public in a state hospital. MUSC physicians work the same number of hours as community physicians while also teaching students from all disciplines and conducting research.
We have some ongoing concerns however:
1. The president plans to continue with some buiding projects on campus. These projects aim to build two new buildings on G lot: Bioengineering Building and a Pharmaceutical Discovery Building. Now, MUSC has secured monies from the state that have to be used for these purposes. However, MUSC does not have the funds to equip and maintain these buildings. I am doubtful that we can even afford to turn on the water or power to these buildings. Many of the faculty do not support these buiding projects.
2. There is serious concern about the financial viability of the ART. These concerns have led to the university seeking vendors to lease space in the main ART building to raise capital. One who enters the buiding immediately realizes the beauty of the building, however, there is a lot of dead space in the building that is not contributing to a net financial gain. In other words, atriums are nice but they do not generate revenue. It is my understanding that the Board of Trustees was most disturbed that MUSC went from operations in the black to operating in the red with the opening of the ART. This is possibly due to above mentioned problems (ambulance bay too small to accomiodate ambulances, no staffing to open hospital without traveling nurses, ect). However, we are not hearing that this facility has started operating in the black. At one point there was an estimate of a 2 million loss per month (possibly up to 3.5 million/month). Recently, clinical services that were normally in the main hospital have been moved to ART to balance the losses (moving clinical services that generate large amounts of revenue to ART to create an appearance of improved financial viability).
3. There are remaining concerns that we have too many managers/administrators. For instance, we have so many Deans and Associate Deans that have high salaries. These are at the expense of the physicians that care for patients. There really need to be some cuts here.
4. Limited communication – most communication has been achieved through the P&C and not through MUSC. For instance, the media knew of the plan prior to the employees at MUSC.
5. There are plans to accept foreign medical school graduates into the third and fourth year of medical school at MUSC. In addition, the school is increasing the number of out of state students accepted this year. Why? Easy, an out of state or foreign student pays about 80k per year to attend relative to the 20k or so that an in-state student pays. The students are nervous over this change as well as the tuition hikes that are certain for next year. The major state lender, South Carolina Student Loan Corp, has announced that they will not fund MEDPAL loans in the upcoming year. Students may not have places to look to pay these rates.
There seems to have been so much mismanagement that needs serious investigation. Let’s hope that it happens.
Mr. Bertram,
The bottom line (literally) for MUSC and all state colleges is that if they are increasing cost per student faster than the general rate of price inflation and, more importantly, the incomes of families and taxpayers, then they need to demonstrate a comensurate increase in benefits to the students and taxpayers.
That increase in quality of the education is not evident.
It is way past time for all state colleges to freeze tuition and fee hikes until taxpayer incomes catch up with a 30-year run of price hikes due to mismanagement.
Hey, Lee actually said something witty!
“Beautiful people don’t waste money.” I got a laugh out of that.
If he’d do that more often, other folks here might not get so irritated with him. He might even change some minds, who knows?… on second thought, go back to being yourself, Lee.
Brad, why don’t you try, just once, to engage one of your posters in an adult conversation?
The closest you come is giving a back rub to Karen or “bud” when they agree with you on depriving South Carolinians of some liberty.
Ooh — Lee we are liking these posts. Accurate to the point of blushing!!!!!!!!!
We never knew you could relate to us average schmoes!
Gee I don’t know Brad. The Guv’s ex employees don’t seem to be the ones doing the damage to RG. Seems like it’s his own employees who keep dropping dimes on him!!!!
That ART sure sounds like a wise use of taxpayer and public money doesn’t it Brad?
RE: “Beautiful people don’t waste money.” I got a laugh out of that.
If he’d do that more often, other folks here might not get so irritated with him. He might even change some minds, who knows?… on second thought, go back to being yourself, Lee.
…………..
#1. You didn’t capitalize ‘Beautiful People.’
[Sarah Palin is one of these now, and you will surely incur her wrath for it.]
#2. I would wager Lee is not the one people are most irritated with. [Ended sentence with a preposition, I think. Sue me.]
#3. As Nikki Haley’s cool Christmas card inspires us to [nice touch there kiddos!!]…
Lee, you be whoever you want to be!!!!!!!
…………..
🙂