We now know that Bobby Jindal has hired over 4,000 new state employees in his first year in office. (See commentary Monday below.)

Publicly, Bobby claims to have reduced the number of state employees. For those who don’t understand government speak, Bobby is either ignorant of what is happening in his administration or he is purposely obfuscating the truth — translation: lying.

What we don’t know is the cost to us taxpayers of Bobby having increased the number of state employees by 4.2%.

Based on recent figures from the LA Department of Civil Service, I’ve calculated the average cost to the taxpayers (salary and benefits) for each state employee is, conservatively, $62,000.

Therefore, 4,000 new employees were added at a cost of almost $250 MILLION.

Of that amount, at least $87 MILLION has been added to the cost of operating state government since the state announced it was facing a deficit and would have to cut higher education and health care.

Bobby’s plan for our state appears to be to spend us into prosperity.

C.B.