$199, 678 Average Salary and Benefits for Firefighters in Clark County, Nevada

The Las Vegas Sun reports on the upper class:

After 40 hours of hearings to sort through Clark County’s budget woes, the key issue that emerged for most of the 15 carefully chosen community representatives was the high cost of county employees, particularly firefighters.

“The only way to truly cut costs in a general fund of $1.5 billion when the payroll (wages and benefits) is over $1.2 billion is to cut staff, hours, salaries and/or benefits,” the Committee on Community Priorities’ preliminary report says, adding: “The rise in employee compensation is unsustainable.”

Regarding firefighters, the committee noted that “$180,000 compensation (wages plus benefits) for the average (Fire Department) employee is outrageous, even outside this economic downturn.”

But that dollar figure has now been eclipsed.

County officials said Tuesday that the average salary and benefits package for firefighter union employees was $199,678 for the fiscal year that ended in July. The average salary alone was $128,026.

They sure aren't altruistic.