Don't Put Off To Tomorrow...

...what you can postpone until the day after.
(from Cracked Magazine)

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled comedy tale
to bring this special news bulletin.

Defer (v.t.)

Merriam-Webster defines this word simply as "put off; delay"
They add:
"DEFER implies a deliberate putting off to a later time <deferred buying a car until spring>."
The American Heritage Dictionary has "put off; postpone."

What is the difference between something being deferred and something being eliminated entirely? There's a huge difference. For example...

When a qualified student is permitted to defer paying tuition and fees, that fee deferment allows the student to pay those fees at a later date. Now, unless the student drops his classes before the refund deadline, he must still pay those fees -- even though he may no longer be enrolled when payment comes due.

If someone is permitted to defer payment on a debt for one month, when the next month comes there is still money due. The debtor still must pay the debt; payment has not been canceled ... merely put off.

Alright, now let's look at the government's use of "defer" as it relates to salaries.

Recently, the state of Nevada determined to "defer" the increase of pay that normally comes in July. These "step increases," they claimed, will now come in January. This is not a deferment. Suppose that for you, personally, the additional pay for the Fall semester amounted to $1000. When do you get this money? Will you receive it in Spring, along with the additional money that is owed you for Spring? No. You will not get that money at all...ever. Hypothetically, if you were to leave the state in December, you should still get the money whose payment to you has been "deferred" -- IF it's a deferment. However, if you leave in December, you get nothing; the state pockets that $1000 that, allegedly, it was going to pay to you. Payment of that $1000 has been canceled -- not deferred.

Now some state legislators are talking about a "deferment" of the 4% Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA). These people now claim that perhaps they'll "defer" that COLA until 2009. Will you then receive the money from 2008 in addition to the money from 2009? No. You'll get an adjustment for 2009 ONLY. The money whose payment has been "deferred" has actually been "pocketed." You will never get that money no matter how long you work for the state.

I am not saying here that it is wrong to cancel the COLA for the coming year. This might be a reasonable way to save part of the 14% that the state is demanding in cuts. Since the state has so far refused to generate other revenue to replace the anticipated ("lost") revenues, within that paradigm cuts are the only way to go. Across-the-board salary reductions make sense, since it is almost certainly preferable to reduce salaries than to cut positions. However, let's call the elimination of the COLA what it is. It is NOT a proposed deferment; it is a proposed elimination. That money will remain with the state as "savings" -- not until next year but indefinitely.