Image via WikipediaCorbett said there must be sacrifices among unionized workforces and called for eliminating 1,500 state jobs, almost half of them in mental-health services. He said he would seek concessions in salaries and benefits from unions representing tens of thousands of state employees when contract talks begin this spring.Dude, it's OUR money too. All state employees are TAXPAYERS!! Its class warfare Republican style. The old divide and conquer pitting middle class folks against eacher to race to the bottom of the economic latter while your Fracking buddies take the spoils. Say, why don't you, your staff and the ENTIRE Legislature agree to cutting your saleries and perks, then I would know it would be "shared sacrifice.
"To the people of Pennsylvania, the taxpayers who sent us here, I want to say something you haven't heard often enough from this building: We get the picture. It's your money," Corbett said.
As the Philly Inquirer notes:
He said that freezing school employees' pay for a year could save $400 million. He noted that state workers' median salary is $45,105 while the private-sector median is $32,239. And he said that state workers pay only 3 percent of their salary for their health coverage while almost everyone else pays much more.
What he didn't mention - though he proposes a slight reduction in the Legislature's operating budget - is that lawmakers pay only 1 percent for health insurance. Would have been nice to hear some shared-sacrifice talk aimed at lawmakers.
Here is SEIU's Kathy Jellison's response reaction to the Budget.
Kathy Jellison, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 668, which represents some 20,000 state and county social services workers, was more dire in her assessment. She saw Corbett’s somber message as the first salvo in an all out-attack on every aspect of her union’s state contract, which expires this July.This contract is going to be UGLY!!
“Every benefit we have I feel he’s coming after,” Jellison said.
She called Corbett’s no-tax increase budget “Fat Tuesday” for big corporations. That leaves state workers to make the sacrifices of Lent.
Jellison said the social workers, parole officers, and drug and alcohol counselors she represents are already doing the work of two or three people. “Our people know how to pinch pennies,”
1 comment:
There is a big difference between public employees who are taxpayers, and private employees who are taxpayers. Private citizens should the FULL amount of public salaries, and publicly employed people pay back a portion of their salaries that were paid for by private citizens.
The more money you get in raises and benefits, even though you pay a portion of it back in taxes, originated solely from the private sector.
In a business deal this would be called a kickback. Think about it.
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