Local officials lining their pockets with taxes

People, people, wake up and see what our local public officials, i.e., legislators, city and county officials and administrators, have been doing for themselves and fellow public employees to the detriment of us private-sector workers, retirees and taxpayers.

Automatic pay raises of 3 to 5-plus percent. With unemployment still over 9 percent (nationally), a slow economy, mostly nonexistent raises in the private sector and no increase in Social Security, where's the justification/fairness for these raises?

Union contracts with increases of 3 percent and up, and some are for multiple years - where's the justification for these?

Shoring up retirement benefits: Why? We in the private sector took a 30 to 40 percent downturn in our savings when the market crashed a couple of years ago and nobody shored it up for us; we're dealing with less. It's past time public employees joined us. This shoring up for themselves is on top of their generous retirement and medical benefits, which more and more private sector employees no longer offer.

No wonder they want to raise property and other taxes.

Come on people, stand up for your pocketbook, it is your money they're taking for themselves.

Stephen Menzner

Marion