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The Press is hostile

to state workers

Regarding the June 28 editorial on the state budget, "Some hard-earned lessons for taxpayers":

Underpaid state workers have been put in an impossible situation. They were asked to break a 2-year-old ratified contract, forgo this July's pitiful raise until 2011, accept higher payroll deductions for medical/pension without any offsetting salary increase and take 10 unpaid furlough days.

These draconian measures will result in a significant salary loss for most state workers. In return, the governor has merely offered to honor the job security that is the very nature of civil service employment.

The Press has responded to this tragedy with a series of increasingly hostile political cartoons and editorials that mock state employees for greed or indifference while also misrepresenting the full details of the governor's empty promises. An editorial referred to this debacle as a "sweet deal" for the state workers union and suggested that a grateful union would re-elect the governor. Another editorial suggested that the state should enact pension and benefit "reform" that business groups would like to see. How's that "reform" working out for the average employee in the private sector?

Meanwhile, yet another Press editorial described the bailout of a failing department store as a "sensible move." Motives are often impossible to prove, but I suspect that The Press endorsement of the Boscov's bailout was due to the fact that the department store is a major advertising account for the newspaper.

JAMES P. McGETTIGAN

Atlantic City

Support open space

in Cumberland County

Regarding an open-space plan for Cumberland County:

This argument over farmland preservation vs. open-space preservation must end. The voters of Cumberland County approved a tax to be spent for farmland preservation, open space and recreation. The farmland-preservation program has been extremely successful, and no one should tamper with that. However, the time has come to construct an equally effective plan for open space, recreation and perhaps historical preservation. The communities and environmental commissions have asked for action and deserve a positive answer. This will take a few years to organize, get community input and design. During this time, any issues that need addressing can be thoroughly discussed.

This fall, the voters will be asked to approve a state referendum to bond for $400 million. That money will be used to augment our farmland-preservation program, and some of it will also be available to those counties that have open-space plans. Hopefully, we will finally join the other 20 counties in receiving our share of the open-space funds.

In 2007, slightly more than half of the voters in Cumberland County voted against a similar public question. If there is any hope for support of the referendum this year, we must join forces, agricultural and open-space advocates, to ensure that both of these programs can have a future of adequate funding.

JENNIFER R. SWIFT

Bridgeton

(Editor's note: Jennifer R. Swift is a former freeholder director in Cumberland County and a current independent Democratic candidate for freeholder.)

Corzine focuses on foe

instead of state finances

Regarding the June 26 story, "Christie defends consulting contract before House panel":

On June 25, Gov. Jon S. Corzine rammed a budget through the Legislature that raises taxes, cuts spending for important programs and employs a host of gimmicks that just push the financial reckoning into the future. But, instead of paying attention to the crisis facing our state, the Wall Street wizard devoted himself to orchestrating a partisan attack on Republican opponent Chris Christie by the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee.

New Jerseyans are faced with ever-rising unemployment, billions in new taxes and worries about staying in their homes, but this governor has left it up to middle-class families to do the planning for the future and make all the tough choices that Corzine should be making.

All Corzine could do is fiddle while New Jersey burns. Enough. It's time for a change.

MARY J. MASON

Ventnor

3 comments:

• MrWhite (94) posts 2:21 pm

  When McGreedy jacked up business taxes to stratospheric levels, the company I worked for was forced to cut the salaries of employees like me by $12,500 a year. Now state workers expect sympathy? They can drop dead!

• todfiat (0) posts 10:51 am

  state employees, county employees, and city employees have had it soooo EZ, for soooo many decades, with featherbedding and gold-bricking and nepotism and ever-expanding "holidays" that there collective p'ing and moaning is no different than an angry adolescent who has had his toys taken from him. Except the adolescent has numerous neuro-physiological factors ("growth pains") to explain his behavior. What do the public-sector, overpaid, underworked employees have as an excuse? Merely recall the fable of The Ant and The Grasshopper. It's wintertime, O grasshopper. Kwitcherbitchin.

• njdlmkr (309) posts 7:53 am

  "These draconian measures will result in a significant salary loss for most state workers". Talk about blowing things out of proportion! This guy is so far up the union's butt it's ridiculous. He should switch to writing fiction books.

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