It’s been so long since the nation as a whole has gone through a prolonged economic downturn that many public employees can’t remember a time when pay didn’t always increase and benefits weren’t always prime.
In many instances, governmental agencies and their employees – union and non-union – have had a collegial relationship when it comes to contracts and pay increases. Every year, every contract came with golden eggs for all.
That’s why it may be hard for public employees to understand the outcry of taxpayers when they see an unwillingness to share the hurt. In Brookfield that reality hit home soundly in 2009. Layoffs, wage freezes. It threw people for a loop.
While there was plenty of finger pointing about whose fault it was, the fact remained that the belt would be tightened in 2009 and in 2010. So far, village employees have responded by accepting across-the-board pay freezes. In the case of clerical and public works employees, it’s for two years. Firefighters reluctantly accepted one year, while police are still negotiating with village officials.
Those concessions were an acknowledgment of what almost everybody in the private sector has been facing for the past two years.
When the firefighters’ union representative states that it’s “hard to negotiate with a gun to your head,” it’s a revealing statement. It’s as if the village and the union exist in a vacuum and that the two are simply hammering out a deal between each other.
But the gun isn’t at the head of employees; it’s at the head of taxpayers, who have to foot the bill every time there’s a pay increase, a step raise, a pension contribution.
When elected school boards give administrators five-figure raises, it comes out of taxpayers’ pockets. When teachers get a 7-percent raise each year, while people in the private sector are losing their jobs and getting their wages cut, it’s the latter who feel the cold steel at their temples.
Maybe 2010 is the year in which governments begin to acknowledge reality again and begin demanding that their employees do the same. Sometimes playing hardball is in the best interest of those paying the bills.
We’re not suggesting that elected officials wage war against their employees, but it’s time for them to recognize that patience has run out on the part of taxpayers and their generosity will be much more hard won in the future.
It’s your choice, get out the vote
February is a hell of a time for an election. The cold and snow aren’t all that conspire to keep people away from the polls. But a non-presidential year primary election? Oh, man, voters run for the hills.
Still, with county and state governments that are floundering, it’s crucial come November to have the best possible candidates on the ballot, and the only way you can do that is to go out and vote in the primary.
Don’t let someone else make your choices for you next Tuesday.