Florida Making Tough Choices

Actually, the choices aren't that tough. They are actually wise:

• The Treasure Coast court system has 42 judges, prosecutors, investigators, public defenders and administrators who are paid more than $100,000 per year.

  Circuit judges, who preside over major criminal and civil cases, are paid $145,080 per year under a state salary scale that went into effect Oct. 1, 2006. That makes Florida's circuit judges the 11th highest paid trial judges in the nation, according to a 2008 survey by the National Center for State Courts.

  But the pay of Florida's circuit judges would slide down to 17th place nationwide if the state government enacts a Senate bill calling for all state employees earning more than $100,000 per year to take a 5 percent pay cut.

We'd certainly like to see a breakdown of the following:

• The number of state employees making more than $100,000 a year under the last five governors. Has it gone up or down?
• The number of county employees making more than $100,000 a year under the Strogers, senior and junior. We' know all of Todd's cousins are making over $100,000 per year.
• The number of city employees making more than $100,000 per year as it relates to Shortshanks terms in office.

We're pretty sure we know what the answers will be. We're pretty sure you do, too.