I no longer live in Y-town, but I still live in Ohio. I work for the County where I live. I can't speak with any type of knowledge about what the public employee benefits in Mahoning County are, but where I currently live and work, it's not what everyone seems to think.
I'm sure there are some people who are making a lot of money and receiving high end benefits. But speaking for myself and most of my co-workers, we are at the lowest rate of our pay ranges. And as the economy has gotten worse and the costs of everything has risen, our pay rates have been frozen for years. And we pay into our benefits just like everyone else. And for those of us who are at the low end of the pay rate and have not had any increases, after we have paid into our benefits (both health and retirement), our take home pay is nothing to brag about. Most of us are just getting by like the rest of you. So please don't judge all public workers by the few who are making the large salaries or who are protected by the unions. Yes, there are some of those. But the majority of us are just regular working people like you.
I read such anger and hate on these comments it's like a lynching of all public workers. And I read the comments saying things like how we all are greedy, we all deserve to have our salaries cut, we all deserve to have our pensions cut, etc... And I just would like people to know that at least the people I know and work with are just making ends meet like everyone else and if they cut us anymore, we won't be able to afford the current cost increases. (And I don't mean that we live like rich people and won't be able to afford our way of life, I mean basic things that everyone needs...house payment, groceries, utilities, etc...)
Anyway, to anyone who took the time to read this all the way through, thanks for listening.
Voters asked to slice public pension perks
Thank you hope4thevalley for what you said.
I no longer live in Y-town, but I still live in Ohio. I work for the County where I live. I can't speak with any type of knowledge about what the public employee benefits in Mahoning County are, but where I currently live and work, it's not what everyone seems to think.
I'm sure there are some people who are making a lot of money and receiving high end benefits. But speaking for myself and most of my co-workers, we are at the lowest rate of our pay ranges. And as the economy has gotten worse and the costs of everything has risen, our pay rates have been frozen for years. And we pay into our benefits just like everyone else. And for those of us who are at the low end of the pay rate and have not had any increases, after we have paid into our benefits (both health and retirement), our take home pay is nothing to brag about. Most of us are just getting by like the rest of you. So please don't judge all public workers by the few who are making the large salaries or who are protected by the unions. Yes, there are some of those. But the majority of us are just regular working people like you.
I read such anger and hate on these comments it's like a lynching of all public workers. And I read the comments saying things like how we all are greedy, we all deserve to have our salaries cut, we all deserve to have our pensions cut, etc... And I just would like people to know that at least the people I know and work with are just making ends meet like everyone else and if they cut us anymore, we won't be able to afford the current cost increases. (And I don't mean that we live like rich people and won't be able to afford our way of life, I mean basic things that everyone needs...house payment, groceries, utilities, etc...)
Anyway, to anyone who took the time to read this all the way through, thanks for listening.
June 27, 2010 at 7:47 p.m. permalink suggest removal