Letter: Eliminate Triborough Amendment

Triborough must go! ["Triborough Amendment a hurdle to fiscal sanity," Opinion, Jan. 26.]

The Triborough Amendment mandates that all provisions of public employee contracts, including "step" increases, remain in effect even after contracts expire. Eliminating it is essential to city and suburban school reform. No real change in public schools will come until the governor and legislature address this issue.

The much-touted tax cap will not work without giving the people the power to negotiate contract salaries and benefits that they can afford to pay.

Andrea Vecchio, East Islip

Editor's note: The writer is an activist with the taxpayer groups Suffolk County TaxPAC and Long Islanders for Educational Reform.