How'd you like to determine your own salary and benefits? Welcome to the world of the public employee.

The Nevada Policy Research Institute says that in Nevada during the last decade, roughly half of the legislators have also been state employees or married to a state employee. That provides plenty of incentives for the Legislature to create a generous retirement plan that imposes significant burdens on everyone else.

Among the problems: A declining ratio of working employees to retirees and an increase in the unfunded liability of the system.