McKenna fired back, "They say they pay taxes too, but they pay taxes on our
dime. We're paying to be here, and we're paying for them to be here, too. That's
messed up. The least you (public employees) could do is say, 'Thank you.'"
She apparently doesn't appreciate that State employees pay the same taxes as any other working woman or man. In McKenna's insulated cocoon she seems incredulous that those wages might be treated in the same way as any other.
She believes that the garbagemen and prison guards should be grateful for her largess. McKenna would like a little "Thank You" note from the boys at the firehouse when they come back from a run or just a little gratitude from the plow jockey who's lucky enough to plow her street at 4 AM.
You betcha the state employees were rude to the squawkers on The Square. How would anyone react when faced with busybodies coming in to mess around with their paycheck? How would Owen deal with someone sitting on his desk and shouting that he's overpaid? Would Fred brook for just one moment amplified bitching about the job he does?
Vicki McKenna doesn't get it. She should be grateful for the services the state provides and to the people who do them. I'll guarantee she's not going to be cleaning out the sewer grates any time soon.
We all want a reasonable level of taxation. Those of us who are honest admit that we also want a level of service as well. Taxes pay for the things we want and need as a civilization. The state employees put a face on those services. That seems to have made a few people uncomfortable today.
3 comments:
Well said, grumps. Bravo.
Thank you, Grumps, for your thanks -- we state workers need it.
And has Ms. McKenna had a raise recently? State employees haven't had one, and some of us apparently aren't going to get one -- and our last one, last year, didn't show up until the last paycheck of the fiscal year. (The state always does that even when the budget is passed on time; it delays our raises to bank our bucks.)
And have Ms. McKenna and her ilk figured out that not keeping up on the pay of state workers also is not increasing our taxes to pay the state to reduce their share of taxes? And that with so many of us still working at levels set more than a biennium ago, the state average income level and state tax revenue level probably won't rise in the report on those stats for this state this year?
No. They'll use the stats to declaim again that the state workers aren't working hard enough, and that we make the state bad for business -- although good businesses have budgets by now and never would try to operate with a budget for last year based on projections three years ago.
Anyway -- thanks again, and now I'm going back to work, at midnight, because there's more of that work we do that needs to be done by tomorrow for the citizens of this state whom I serve. As long as they're glad we're there -- and they are -- we'll be there, too.
And we'll be grateful, too, for the chance to serve -- that's why we're in public service, not the private sector. But that doesn't mean we can't get jobs there; many of us had them before but prefer public service. And it sure doesn't mean that we'll grovel.
Anonymous, well said. From one state employee to another, I can relate to almost all of what you said. I didn't choose to become a state employee because of the fabulous pay and benefits, because I could have made more money in the private sector; I chose to work for the state because I wanted an opportunity to help make the state I live in a little better place.
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