This is not just a New York issue, this is nation wide. It is getting worse everywhere and we seem to be helpless in it. It is the responsibility of our supposed elected representatives to get this under control. How? Do what ever it takes, we have to daily in our own budgets, you need to in the government.
Government jobs breaking the bank
It’s time to bring public-sector benefits in line with rest of us
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
Somewhere along the way, we reached a point where public employees have it better than workers in the private sector.
The public employees won’t like hearing that, and I’m not anxious to scapegoat them, among the reasons being that as a group they are very good newspaper readers.
But just as I’ve been avoiding it for too long, this is a situation we’re all going to have to start facing if we’re ever going to get the cost of government under control.
Simply put, the people who are the beneficiaries of taxes are being better compensated — when you calculate pay plus benefits — than most of the people who have to pay the taxes.
I could quote some statistics to make the point, but you know it instinctively from what you can see around you. Government jobs have become highly coveted, especially among nonprofessionals, where the disparities are greatest.
We’re going to need to take steps to level the playing field.
On Monday, the Sun-Times ran a story about some business and taxpayer groups, led by the Civic Committee, urging Gov. Blagojevich to extract concessions from state workers on pension benefits and health care.
I can’t say if they really are trying to pressure the governor or just helping give him cover for what he already wants to do, but either way, they’ve correctly picked the area where the treatment of public sector employees is most out of whack with what’s happening in the private sector.
Cut retirees’ cost-of-living increase?
For those in the public sector who have lost track, it’s getting brutal in the private sector.
The traditional defined benefit pension plans on which most government workers still expect to retire are becoming practically extinct in the corporate world. Private sector retirees also are being hit with increases in the costs of their health care, and their options are more limited.
But our state and local governments continue offering pension plans that allow workers to retire earlier and with more generous benefits than their private sector counterparts.
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Tags: Congress Abuse
