WORKERS: Don't blame us

Mike Reno has a letter in the Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, paper. He seems to think public servants, government workers, are living high on the hog and are the cause, or part of the cause, of housing prices going up. That the pensions earned by said public workers are “tax free.” That they make more when retired than they did while working?

I paid taxes on my earnings, I pay taxes on my retirement funds, I paid into Social Security and pay taxes on the income on that plus they take a co-pay for Medicare out every month. I pay for my medical insurance from my pension. I sure don’t make more now by any means than I did while working!

Now I’m not saying the administration (bosses) don’t meet that criteria. When I worked for a school district, the top boss got a raise of a measly 1 percent, which was an excuse used to attempt to deny the workers a 3 percent raise over the next five years. That measly 1 percent raise was more, all by itself, than my husband and I, combined, made yearly!

Does he resent that police officers and fire department personnel get good benefit packages? That we (government workers) pay as much or more during our working years into our pension fund than is added to anyone’s tax bill or other rates that the public, which include those government workers who pay rents or mortgages, pay?

Walk a mile in the ordinary clerk’s shoes for 35 or 40 years. Retirement is no bed of roses for most people and that does include most public servants.

I just wonder what or who pissed him off so badly that he blames all government workers for the cost of housing?

DIANE BURRIGHT

Post Falls