Merit system morphs into monster

By Joel Peyton

A commission created by former Gov. Brereton Jones in the early 1990s recognized what current Frankfort politicians know but refuse to seriously address: Kentucky's merit system simply doesn't work.

Originally, this system sought to make qualifications — not political-party affiliation — the determining factor in hiring and promotion decisions involving state workers. A system designed to serve taxpayers well has morphed into one in which longevity and an aversion to risk are the primary requirements to sustain annual pay raises.

Ironically, the central theme of the merit system — to eliminate political hiring and firing — never matured. Over the years, a continuing degradation of the original system's principles has created a merit-system "monster" an entangled thicket of rules and regulations that have created an unrecognizable facsimile of its creator's original intent.

The current state-employee system denies advantage to good workers and insulates unproductive ones. Exceptional workers have little chance of getting a better raise than their lazy cohorts. Plus, no real consequences follow a poor performance ... and too many state workers know it.

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