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Don’t Cut MY Pay!
Posted on December 16 2010 by in Uncategorized with 0 comments
The single largest line item of most budgets, public and private, is labor expense. Much has been said this year about hiring practices in a recession, but one thing is certain, at the risk of keeping business doors open, the largest line item needs to be assessed. In the private sector many jobs have been cut and salaries have been decreased. In the public sector the biggest favor we could request was deferring their cost of living increases.
When public salaries come up, conversation quickly changes to tax increases. After all, according to Assemblywoman and union rep Peggy Pierce, the working class has cut enough. If that was true, why haven’t we seen any movement on salaries? Unions often claim that salaries must not be cut because it’s hard enough to keep talented people working for our governments during the good years. Well, it’s time to get back to reality. A secretary doesn’t need a starting salary that rivals that of a public sector CPA. Additionally, we don’t need to be paying 2 people when 1 will suffice. Our governments have proven that they’re just as capable to provide essential services with a skeleton crew as they were previously.
When our governments actually call on big labor to help solve our budget deficits, it’s too much to ask. Recent figures show that public employee pay is more than 50% higher than their private sector counterpart but all that their labor representatives are willing to offer is deferred cost of living increases, and when the government calls their bluffs, labor cries foul.
The Las Vegas City Council is now seeing the wrath of their firefighters union. When the Council called on them to help fill an ever growing deficit, labor said no. When the Council filled their deficit by cutting the firefighters special teams, labor filled a lawsuit claiming retaliation. How is being a responsible steward of taxpayers money considered retaliation?
We elected our representative to make the tough decisions to solve our economic crisis. We call on them to make cuts, and follow the example of the private sector, and when elected officials actually do cut the fat out of their budgets, overpaid public employees go on the rampage, wasting more taxpayer dollars.
It is time for the spoiled unions to be reminded that bullies only hurt themselves in the long run. Fiscal conservatives will win this fight because our budgets have been bloated by labor union greed long enough.
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