Time for township employees to pay their fair share!

As of this morning, the Township Committee still needs to cut $474,804 from the municipal budget to bring the tax rate increase down to the state mandated maximum of 4%. Not that they should stop there, but this is the Committee we are talking about! At least $377K of this amount could be gained if our municipal employees agreed to pay the same 27% share of their benefit costs to the degree most of us do in the private sector. In addition, a good portion of the remaining $100K could be made up by eliminating payments to employees who choose not to take benefits.

The time has come for public employees to pay their fair share!

In full disclosure as a committeeman, I ran on a platform of voting "NO" for any employee contract that did not include a 20% employee contribution towards health care costs. During my tenure, I voted on three contracts, casting a "NO" vote each time as my threshold was not met.

Update: I just received a phone call from an irate municipal worker who wanted to know why I am taking this position. When I asked this person if they would rather see 7 of their co-workers get pink slips instead, the silence was deafening...