The Budget and John Q. Citizen

To the Editor

While the budget is being debated, I hope those responsible have realized that a totally new approach to fiscal problems is called for. Past neglect and errors have brought us, and every public budget, to the sad state of affairs we are in now. What should we do?

When considering the alternatives, it might do well to look at the distant past when towns and the state and the federal government were able to not just repair, but install entire infrastructures, such as sewage, water mains, and schools without constant budget crises. The answer is that the cost of services connected with these facilities have gone totally out of bounds. Laying off personnel is not the answer. We need these services as towns have found out, e.g. when laying off police, the crime rate has risen.

But there is an urgent need for a new frontier. The answer is a sharp reduction of fringe benefits for public employees. The purchase of an annuity guaranteeing a pension will be at least $100,000 for every $10,000 of pension. The mathematics of this is obvious and destructive to any budget. The unions want more, not less. The answer is that unions for those who have essentially a monopoly on their job should be eliminated. It is proven to be destructive for the general public and a bonanza for the wrong politicians: those in bed with the unions and not John Q. Public.

Unions for public employees are totally different from private business unions. The former have a monopoly on jobs, the latter do not and thus may need collective bargaining.

A job with tenure plus a high salary and fringe benefits is a pipe dream and not reality as we will find out if we continue with business as usual — Detroit already has. What is more, there should be no bailout for those who have for their own benefit created these conditions.

I also suggest that a test program be conducted to replace teachers by installing computers with academically superior teaching programs and supervise the class with monitors at a fraction of the cost of tenured teachers. The percentage of the budget for education must be sharply reduced and education in general improved, while some of the savings be used for improving roads, installing sewers, and other town needs. We cannot afford the status quo, nor fail to recognize the need for change.

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                           January 20, 2011