Friday, May 22, 2009

Spin Dry

Some of the true believers for Governor Markell and his proposed 8% pay cut to school employees and state workers are repeating the administration's spin about the workers being almost 46% of the cost of government. Under this logic, it therefore figures that state workers are not being over burdened by the cut, furlough days, and increased health care costs.



Maybe it is time for a little Civics 101 for all these folks. State government and the services provided by that government exist for all citizens, are used by all citizens, and benefit all citizens. Therefore a state budget crisis is the responsibility of all citizens, not just those workers providing the services.



We are now into the rabbit hole in Delaware politics:
The Governor and some Democrats are putting out spin that sounds Republican; anti-tax, cut state worker pay, state workers' benefits are too generous, government is too big...
Meanwhile, the Republicans are opposed to state worker pay cuts, and in favor of raising revenue.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Joint Finance Committee will meet again next week. It is unclear if they will take a vote on the proposed cut to state worker salaries, or delay this into June. In any event, when regular session begins again June 2nd the legislature must jump into action in order to have a budget by June 30th.

State workers stand united in the demand that the only correct vote for us on salary reductions is zero percent. We do not want decision makers coming to us and saying 'You're right 8% was too harsh, how about 4%...2%'

This idea of salary reduction could ruin school employment as a career. If any salary reduction were to stand, that would legitimize salary reduction as a budget balancing tool from now on. Perhaps next time it will not be an economic depression, just a mild recession and they only need to take away 1.5%. You get the point.

No comments:

Post a Comment