If you cut all of the duplicate or useless jobs at the federal, state, and local levels, unemployment would go through the roof. Which begs the question, is keeping people employed in non essential or unnecessary positions worth it to the taxpayer just to keep people working? The answer should be a resounding NO, but the practice continues and unfunded pensions and benefits are crippling budgets.
Case in point, Obama’s Chicago:

The government bodies include a mosquito abatement district in suburban Chicago that spends three-quarters of its budget on pay and benefits — and more on pensions than insecticide. The districts have been around since the 1920s, when they were created to fight malaria. They have resisted recent efforts to consolidate as state officials have called them a waste of taxpayer money.

Even when they are needed — Illinois had the most cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in a decade last year — they can be ineffective. Jim Sexton, the mayor of Evergreen Park, contracted West Nile and was hospitalized for six weeks, although four entities spend money to combat the disease in his village alone. read article here

Of course no one that works in these positions wants to lose their cushy jobs and benefits, problem is, hard choices need to be made or states and cities are going to go the way of Detroit, with the taxpayer being on the hook to bail them out. If you think your taxes are high now, wait until the dominoes begin to fall.