Letters to the Editor

State legislators serving themselves

If ever you needed proof as to whose interests our state’s legislators serve, look no further than their efforts to overhaul our state’s pension benefits, and the failed attempts at a state budget.

Our lawmakers changed the pension reform bill under consideration to allow themselves to keep their pension benefits, while slashing in half the benefits of future state employees.

Additionally, our legislators don’t seem to mind that we have no state budget because, budget or no budget, legislators continue to receive their full salary. Yet there are school districts and human service agencies, dependent upon state funding for continued operations, which are now considering shutdowns for lack of operational money.

How many of you would continue to draw your full salaries and pension benefits while failing to perform the most important aspect of your job?

Personally, I would like to see a statewide referendum that would give Pennsylvanians the opportunity to choose whether our legislators would be paid in the absence of a state budget, and the amount of their pension benefits. Few people will receive retirement benefits anywhere near the level of our state’s legislators.

I appreciate the Christian spirit of brotherly love our legislators demonstrate toward themselves. Perhaps one day, they will be motivated to act similarly toward those whom they were elected to serve in the first place. If not, maybe they should all be replaced in the next election cycle. One can only pray for a Christmas miracle!

Brian Alterio, Bellefonte

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