Monday, June 23, 2008

Changes to non-union bene's

Tomorrow's agenda includes some changes to the personnel rules and regs for non-union ee's. Included among the changes are:While I'm glad that the majority withdrew these items at the last meeting, I'm still wondering where we're headed with this.

Of the above items, I have two thoughts...

1) (top item) We don't need to increase vacation days right now. But I am a firm believer in vacation time... because a lack of vacation time can definitely have a negative impact. So as an alternative, I suggest allowing ee's to "buy" vacation time. For instance, if someone makes $52,000/yr... let him/her "buy" one week's vacation for $1,000. Additionally, once and for all... we should end this practice where ee's can carryforward months and months of vacation time for years and years. If I recall correctly, this continues to occur and creates big unfunded liabilities for the town. For example, if an ee works 30 yrs and makes $100k/yr and has accumulated six months of vacation... in the ee's final year, spending increases $50k as a payout for the unused vacation.

2) (bottom item) This is a huge issue. All benefit plans are big issues... in fact, this reminds me of social security... just make all sorts of promises, but never discuss the costs associated with benefits... don't get me wrong, I strongly support moving from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan... but the costs (and the underlying assumptions) need to be understood. That's why I've asked to have this item broken into a four part grid... first of all I want two scenarios for DB costs vs. DC costs. Second, I want to know about ee's hired after July 1, 2008... as well as ee's hired before July 1, 2008.

To me, we should just end DB plans as an option for any future (non-union) ee's... and I'm open to hearing reasons for not doing that... but lacking this information, I find it hard to believe I can support any benefit plan changes. Again though... I agree with the direction... just not the details... which I still don't know.

Tim White

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Day by day you're sounding more like a run of the mill repub.

Anonymous said...

THIS IS A EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF VOTING DOWN THE PARTY LINE EVEN IF IT MEANS WAVING THE WHITE FLAG TO THE ILLEGALS:

Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee have gutted enforcement funding

Democrats, including your Representative, on the House Appropriations Committee have effectively blocked state and local governments from enforcing immigration laws anywhere in the country.

Here is how it happened:

The DHS Appropriations bill, drafted by Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), took funding away from the 287(g) program, which enables state and local police to coordinate with federal authorities to enforce our immigration laws.

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), offered an amendment to restore the 287(g) funding to the DHS Appropriations bill.

That amendment was defeated along party lines (All Republicans voted to restore the funding, all Democrats voted to gut the funding).

This partisan play by the Democrats on the Appropriations Committee is a terrible blow to immigration enforcement across the country.

State and local police are badly needed to help overwhelmed federal immigration authorities apprehend and detain illegal aliens in the interior of our country. Illegal aliens currently outnumber federal immigration agents by 5,000 to one, and only 2,000 federal agents are active in enforcing the immigration laws in the interior of our country. Clearly, those numbers indicate that a limited number of federal agents are incapable of confronting the estimated 12-20 million illegal aliens currently inside our nation's borders and would benefit from the assistance of the more than 600,000 state and local law enforcement officers nationwide who come into contact with illegal aliens every day.

Your Representative has taken a terrible step to ensure that illegal immigration will contin! ue to sp iral out of control.

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Submitted by: Mike Rocci

Anonymous said...

"the illegals"?

Anonymous said...

These people want 4 weeks of vacation. Let them apply for teaching positions. They new the pay and the beenefits when they took the job. They had a choice. In New York there was a man with a degree from MIT and was looking for a job. There will be more like him looking so we will have plenty to choose from.