Pension battle a matter of unions' survival
Demonstrators sleep in the Madison, Wisc., capitol rotunda as a round-the-clock protest over the proposed budget bill continued on Feb. 27. Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Newsday received an unusually large response to Sunday's special news report, "Cost of pensions soars on LI." Here is a sample.
Thankfully, Newsday seems to be on the right side of the pension issue in New York State and on Long Island in particular. What was interesting was the subtext that pointed out something I have thought about for some time -- namely, all sides of the collective bargaining issue have their own agenda and representation, except for the taxpayer.
Over the course of the past hundred years, plus a few, citizens, especially taxpayers, have relied on their elected representatives to do what was right and correct for the general populous. However, we have learned all too well that our elected officials view their job priority as getting elected first, helping their friends second and if there is any time left over, looking out for us. The union representative works hard to get higher salaries and better benefits for his members or face losing in the union's next election.
But who represents the taxpayer?
If New York raises taxes on the wealthy, they have the ability to pick up and move to a more tax friendly state. But we, the alleged middle class, are stuck. We can't leave our jobs, if we still have one, can't sell our homes, if we still have one, but must continue to support one of the highest-taxed states and counties in the country, with no end in sight. I think it's about time we taxpayers unite and organize.
Michael Aneiro
Let me get this right. Pension costs are only 3.7 percent of the budget in Nassau County and 5 percent in Suffolk County. And 84 percent of revenue that funds public employee pensions comes from investment income. Yet Newsday devoted three pages to writing about the soaring costs of public employee pensions on Long Island. Still there is scant mention of the governor's unwillingness to extend the "millionaire's" tax that brings in significant revenue to the state.
Unions are under attack. The true cause of our fiscal woes is the Wall Street investment bankers, but not one has gone to jail.
The public fails to recognize that most of us are middle-class workers who receive indirect benefits from unions. Unions paved the way for all workers to enjoy benefits like paid catastrophic health care, pensions, the 40-hour workweek, dental benefits, paternity-maternity leave, unemployment insurance, overtime pay and compensated leave.
Lawrence J. Cohen
Editor's note: The writer is a retired teachers union treasurer.
I would suggest a change in title for Newsday's recent article on pension costs: "Politicians' grab of pension funds and poor investment strategy leave Long Island taxpayers with a billion-dollar tax bill" or "The workers paid their share! Why didn't Albany?" If there is greed at work here, it is not in the schoolhouse but in the statehouse.
I must wonder if Newsday has joined the corporate media in ignoring the voices of workers caught in this national war on middle-class government employees.
Georgia McGill-Houle
In her column, "Guv has shot at real reform" [News, March 6], Joye Brown highlights a number of ideas that "reformers" seek to make regarding public employee pensions. The reforms are designed to punish public employees and, in fact, to break contractual promises that were made years ago.
Pensions are deferred compensation. When teachers were making ridiculously inadequate salaries, the taxpayers were more than willing to accept pensions and benefits as a means of enticement. Now that people have lived to collect those benefits, the rules of the game shouldn't be changed. The state's new Tier V pension, enacted last year, is where the unions should draw their line in the sand.
Stewart Singer
Don't let the politicians pit taxpayer against taxpayer. Public workers usually make less than private-company workers. I was in both groups when working, and this was always true.
If there were no unions, there would be no benefits for public employees or private ones either. Now it seems that politicians want to take those benefits away, crush the unions and make you believe that public workers are a drain on taxpayers. Instead, it is the politicians' mismanagement of funds and giving tax breaks to the rich.
Don't let the politicians fool you into thinking that every budget problem is the middle class's fault, because of programs like Social Security and Medicare. Look at the facts: tax breaks for the rich, subsidies to big oil companies, two wars, etc. These are the real things siphoning off our tax dollars.
Paula Camacho
A recent letter-writer thinks that a pension of 50 percent after 30 years is not unreasonable ["Public workers deserve pensions," March 5]. Has he been living on another planet?
Private-sector employees are lucky if they get 25 percent to 30 percent. I know. I worked 30 years in the aerospace industry before I retired. Yet the writer thinks that it is fair that I have to pay the nation's highest taxes on my pension to support him at 50 percent?
It's about time these folks came back down to Earth.
Jeremiah McCarthy
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
