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Finally, elected representatives of the people are taking on a government employee union to try to restore some fiscal responsibility to its budget. The only way Nanticoke or any other local, county, or state government and school district can regain control of their budget is to take back control of the employees. Surrendering to the unions for the sake of peace, with big raises, unreasonable benefit packages and an unsustainable pension is no way to represent the taxpaying public.
In order to prevent future fiscal disaster, elected officials at all levels of government must put the welfare of the taxpayers before that of the employees, and getting rid of that ridiculous guaranteed pension for new employees would be a good place to start. Taxpayers should not be obligated to guarantee any government employee anything upon retirement. Taxpayers should think of this. Public school teachers, for example, after they jump through a few easy hoops, can collect 87 percent of their pay as pension for life. A school teacher, at about age 55, with a salary of $70,000, which is common, would be able to collect about $65,000 a year for life with full health benefits till age 65. Taxpayers should not be forced to compromise their budgets for that.
Although binding arbitration and lack of school choice will make significant changes very difficult, our elected officials have an obligation to work for the interest of taxpayers not government union employees. On the other hand, taxpayers have an obligation to vote for those who don’t represent the interest of government union employees. In my opinion, no government employee, either past or present, should be elected to anything which gives them control of taxpayer dollars.