The following editorial appeared in the December 2011 edition of Carolina Journal:

What’s the ideal number of government workers for North Carolina? Getting the answer right could allow the government to return billions of dollars in taxes and spending every year to private citizens and entrepreneurs. Getting it wrong could wreak havoc on our overall economy — including our ability to support the government work force we genuinely need.

Ask Democratic politicians and left-wing interest groups how many government workers we need, and the only answer you’ll get is, “more than we have now” (which was about 630,000 state and local government workers in October). When it comes to government workers, in their view, there’s never enough of them.

But employees are compensated with taxes. Those are resources removed from the private economy. Some public workers are essential, of course, to enforce the laws, adjudicate disputes in court, and provide other services that cannot be handled fully by private providers, such as open-access highways. The state constitution makes basic public education a right, so we’ll always have teachers funded by taxes.

Yet with the economy stuck in neutral, to put it mildly, a bloated public sector serves as a drag on economic growth, jobs, and wealth creation.

So what’s the proper level of government employment? We can get an idea by comparing our public employment levels with those of neighboring states.

Start by assuming that every state delivers public services adequately.

The 2010 census found roughly 9.535 million residents of North Carolina. Unadjusted September figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 613,800 state and local government employees, making up 6.44 percent of the population.

The state closest to us in population is Georgia, with 9.687 million residents. Georgia has more residents but a smaller state and local work force: 546,600 employees, or 67,200 fewer than North Carolina. Those workers comprise 5.64 percent of the Peach State’s population. Meantime, Virginia’s state and local workers make up 6.52 percent of its population; South Carolina’s, 6.49 percent; and Tennessee’s, 6.11 percent.

Our public employment levels are among the highest in the region. Georgia chooses to do more with less.

How much money could we return to taxpayers if we brought our government employment in line with that of Georgia?

Assume an average annual compensation (salary and benefits) of $50,000 for each public employee. By reducing our state and local work force to 5.64 percent of the population — Georgia’s level — we would employ 76,026 fewer workers. At $50,000 per worker, that’s a little more than $3.8 billion a year in potential savings for taxpayers.

Returning that money to the private sector would boost business development, capital formation, and job growth. Many of those former government workers could find gainful employment in our newly energized private sector.

The next time you hear a liberal pundit or politician gripe about our state’s “inadequate” government work force, remember: $3.8 billion ain’t hay.