To the Editor:
At the Republican Convention of 2012 our governor stated: “We are the great-grandchildren of the men and women who broke their backs in the name of American ingenuity, the grandchildren of the greatest generation, the sons and daughters of immigrants, the brothers and sisters of everyday heroes, the neighbors of entrepreneurs and firefighters, teachers and farmers, veterans and factory workers and everyone in between who shows up, not just on the big days, or the good days, but on the bad days, and the hard days.” These men and women he speaks of are the same public employees on whose backs he wants to balance the state budget. Let’s not forget the retirees, on small fixed pensions from years ago. Every year the cost of basic necessities, like food and fuel, property taxes go up, and without a small COLA [Cost of Living Adjustments] increase these people, the “everyday heroes” who showed up on all the hard days, as our governor spoke about, are being left behind not able to make ends meet. I thought the American motto was, leave no man or woman behind, but our governor is forgetting to take them into consideration. I am proud of the municipal workers I represent, who serve the community by keeping our city infrastructure safe, despite having less personnel than they had just a few years ago, despite making less, like all of us working people, because of taxes and increased costs. Maintenance of our traffic lights, our roads, and our parks, just to name a few, don’t happen by accident, but take planning, organization, and asset allocation to determine the most important job to be accomplished with limited supplies. Now, our governor wants $300 million more from public employees to balance his budget. I can only surmise that he does not think too much of our teachers, or our veterans who are public employees, since he believes only they, who represent the middle class, should pay. How about doing something positive to get New Jersey’s economy going? Instead you put thousands out of work, by closing down needed road repairs, to get what you want. I think our governor forgot where he came from and the values that he should have learned.
MATTHEW GUERRA
President, Bayonne Supervisors Association