Closing time for some librariesHole punched in national standards effort
We are all in this together
By Maria Ortiz PerezMarch 10th, 2010
“127 on city payroll earned more than $100G in 2009″ read the front page on the Lowell Sun yesterday. The article went on and on describing in minute detail the overtime, vacation, sick pay and other perks received by some municipal employees.
After reading this article I thought to myself: “I am definitely in the wrong business”.
Serendipitously, I was reading this morning an article in this week’s Economist* called “Sharing the Pain” that talked about increasing budget deficits and our current inability to continue financing growth with debt. The article made the following point:
“[...] that leaves two other ways of closing the deficit. Spending must be cut or taxpayers must pay more. Many political battles of the next few years will be fought on these simple lines, with tax payers on one side and the beneficiaries of public spending on the other. One imminent battle will be between taxpayers and public sector workers.”
I can see how as a public employee I would want to fight for what I think I deserve. A former municipal employee myself, I know that the argument is that salaries in the private sector are always higher so you might as well enjoy the perks as a public servant.
But when I look on one hand at how much municipalities are paying its employees (i.e. a sick-leave buyback payment of $69,767 at retirement), and on the other witness pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs in the private sector, I cannot help but thinking “Aren’t we all in this together?”
To avoid the “imminent battle” between government employees and taxpayers, we must stop this “milking-the-fat-government-cow” mentality that public employees are displaying. How is this different from the greedy attitude in Wall Street that everyone is so offended by?
We are all -private and public sectors- going through tough times, and we all share the responsibility of getting out of this mess. Why aren’t our leaders putting an end to this “others got it, why can’t I?” attitude in government?
* The Economist March 6ht, 2010. Requires subscription
Entry Filed under: Better Government, Transparency
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