Kudos to our River City Haddonfield Board of Education for staying below the Governor’s 2 percent cap. These BOE folks are elected for three years and spend endless hours in meetings, and qualify as part-time help in my book.
What I’m getting at is they don’t expect pay, health insurance, or pension benefits. Full-time employees are entitled to these perks, but this kind of generosity lends itself to bigger government, one bite at a time. Salary is one thing or small stipends for specific functions, but lifetime benefits are something else.
As far as I know, only the mayor, and the fire chief are part timers getting both benefits. Mr. Borden has his own “opt out” arrangement where the borough pays him $2,500 to save the borough money. Logic tells me, why pay anyone to save money? To save money, the borough shouldn’t give any part-timers these benefits.
Watching TV over the past week or so, I couldn’t miss pictures of the Egyptian and Libyan protesters rebelling against their oppressive leaders. But, was I wrong. It was the government union workers, and out-of- town thugs rebelling against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
What happened here is exactly what is wrong with government unions getting between the people and their elected officials. I don’t know what, if anything, will happen to the 14 legislators who were AWOL from their elected positions, but it’s obvious they totally disregarded the overwhelming results of the 2010 November elections.
A TV film clip of a prominent NEA union leader, Bob Chanan, their general counsel stated the union’s position precisely. The government unions existed for only one reason and that reason is to buy power by having union dues automatically collected and used to elect democrats. Unions in the private sector are the ones doing the necessary job of fighting injustice in the workplace.
Take time to pray for the Japanese people.
Joe Welsh
