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Taxpayers Suffer Where The 'Public Servant' Is King
Ohio ranks sixth on the upper end 

Government Pay: Some big states get their money's worth from their workers, others could use more discipline, and California, as is all too often the case, is in a class by itself. 

How can you tell who really runs a state? Try following the money, especially in the rival realms of public- and private-sector pay. 

You'll find some sharp differences in how government work is rewarded, corresponding roughly to the fiscal and economic health of the states. Here, as in much else, Texas and California sit near opposite ends of the scale. 

A new survey by Bloomberg News of 2011 state workers' pay in the 12 most populous states shows California to have the highest average — $60,317. (This figure includes salaries, overtime, bonuses and other cash compensation, but not benefits). 

Texas paid much less, averaging $35,442. Among the 12 states surveyed, only Florida ($34,481) and Georgia ($28,682) were lower. 

Toward the upper end, California was followed by New York ($55,650), New Jersey ($54,064) and Illinois ($51,387). Michigan ($49,022), Ohio ($48,612), North Carolina ($41,878), Pennsylvania ($39,868) and Virginia ($36,004) fill out the rest of the list. 

A picture emerges here. It's both geographical and political. 

The bluer the state, the better the state workers do. Their turf is the Northeast, Upper Midwest and Pacific Coast, much more than the Deep South. They may go by the "public servant" label everywhere, but there are parts of the country where they are treated more like kings. 

States with the highest state pay include those (like California and Illinois) notable for their struggles with perennial fiscal crises. They are also significant "sender" states in domestic migration. On balance, they lose more people to other states than they gain — an indication of where the jobs are going… 

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