State worker’s view of budget
My financial future should not be a place setting on the governor’s budget table. Take it off and keep it off.

Why do Gov. David Paterson and others believe NYS employees should give up pay raises and “loan” the state another five days of our pay because we somehow share the burden of responsibility for our state’s fiscal crisis?

Inequities and waste exist in all aspects of business: public and private, big and small. Rarely are they the fault of the “little guy” – the cog in the wheel that keeps the machine in motion.

We are being asked to shoulder the burden of a crisis much larger than ourselves. Our contribution would continue for the next three years, but I don’t believe it will have much, if any, effect on the state deficit.

I will pay higher gas prices, higher taxes, higher food bills and more for the next three years but, if I lose my raise, my earnings will not offset the increases.
 
I’m a single person who recently purchased my first home. Knowing what I could expect in income over the next three years played a huge part in that decision. If I can no longer afford my home, that’s one more piece of real estate on an already devalued market and less property taxes paid.

If I make less, I spend less and, instead of supporting local businesses, I’ll shop online for price breaks.

For years, I’ve heard complaints about contractors hired at salaries three times that of a state worker, doing jobs state workers are more than qualified to do.

I know someone who took a position at the Department of Homeland Security’s offices on the state campus. He found himself doing tedious, unrelated work or nothing, while a contractor was given the real work to keep busy. They were equally qualified, but the state worker made approximately $50,000, and the contractor made more than $100,000. This scenario is repeated all across state agencies.

Thank you, President Ken Brynien, for recognizing this gross inequity.

If NYS employees are as underworked and overpaid as some people imagine, then give us the work and let us do it. The state would save millions of dollars.

In fact, the state could pay our raises over the next three years and still save money.

Gov. Paterson, in a rush to pass a budget, is not addressing all possible solutions. Instead, he is taking the fastest, easiest path, and one that hurts more people than it helps.

Why is it so difficult to come up with a plan where, for a change, those with more money lead the way and cuts start at the top and trickle down, vs. starting cuts at the bottom and rarely making it to the top?

BETTY JO MARRA
Schenectady


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