Letters on Merrick, public sector, pension woes, teacher efficiency, Obama immigration reform

Workers provide service to society

House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, said: “Government employees produce nothing. They’re a net consumer” (“Lawmakers divided on how to plug budget hole,” Nov. 16 Eagle). What a great morale builder.

I have only a few questions.

Doesn’t Merrick get a check from the state of Kansas, and isn’t he on its pension plan? Was he ever employed as a member of emergency services and allowed to work a 40-hour week in two days at a natural disaster? If ever a member of emergency services, was he ever shot at? Has he had to tell members of a family that their son or daughter would not be home because of death in an accident? Has he attended the funeral of an emergency services member killed in the line of duty?

Merrick said that government employees produce nothing. They produce service, and without that service we would be a society without order or protection.

Onto something

House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, may be onto something. Though we are on opposite ends of the scale politically, we aren’t that far apart on how to save the state money.

We have way too many delegates in the Legislature. Kansas should change to a unicameral system (single house). Nebraska did that in 1934, and it has 49 nonpartisan senators elected to serve four-year terms.

Kansas has 125 representatives and 40 senators. Just think – we could cut the payroll and expenses by 116 members with one vote in the next election. We wouldn’t pay their pensions, which is a “cost forever and ever and ever,” as the speaker said. There would be less bickering because the Legislature would be nonpartisan. and it should be able to finish its work in 30 days tops, saving even more money.

If Gov. Sam Brownback and his advisers are serious about saving money, they should get on this in the next session and have it ready for a vote in the next election.

If we need to save more, let me know. I have some ideas about the number of counties in the state.

Poor reasoning

Sedgwick County Commissioners Richard Ranzau and Karl Peterjohn see the world exclusively through the filter of their partisan political ideology, which leads them to take some ignorant positions. Most recently they dismissed the need to find a new county manager with experience and education in managing a county (“Commission split in search for county manager,” Nov. 19 Eagle).

They believe the ridiculous statement that “government never created a job.” They love the private sector and abhor the public sector, yet they both hold public-sector jobs. The same goes for U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, who was educated at a U.S. military academy, served in a government job in the military and is in a government job currently.

This view tells us that only profit is valuable, and that social values only exist on the private side. If you believe this bromide, you must believe that no firefighter, public school teacher, member of the armed services, national park ranger, NASA scientist, social worker, etc., has a job. This is just great foolishness, revealing a poor understanding of economics.

What these fellows cannot fathom is that interdependence is what works. You pay the public-sector worker, who then buys your private-sector goods. You build a road or bridge with public funds, which pay for private-sector contracts. The government is a job creator, and the public sector needs to have these jobs.

Pension problem

For several months The Eagle editorial board and others have been critical of the governor for the financial troubles of the state, while ignoring the financial problems of the United States and city of Wichita. Kansas and the city of Wichita have a common problem – the retirement systems.

Both the city and state have pension plans that are much more generous than those in the private sector. The private sector has been dropping defined-benefit plans, and they are virtually gone in the business world. Nationally, the U.S. benefits and retirement plans are costing taxpayers billions each year.

There is little we can do about Washington, D.C., but we can fix Wichita and Kansas. The Eagle has mentioned that the unfunded liability faced by Kansas retirement funds is in the billions. The 2013 evaluation of the city employees’ retirement system showed an unfunded liability of $40.2 million while the city paid more than $2.6 million for retirement to employees who worked at their jobs the same time they received the extra pay.

When will federal, state and local governments face the real world?

Not inefficient

Dave Trabert of the Kansas Policy Institute believes it is an inefficiency to compensate our public school teachers for unused sick leave, calling this compensation a very lucrative benefit (“Teacher benefits, paid leave scrutinized,” Nov. 15 Eagle). Apparently Trabert is unfamiliar with employment in the private sector as well.

I spent 12 years in the financial-services industry before becoming a classroom teacher. At all but one employer during those 12 years, I was compensated upon my resignation with payment for all unused sick leave and unused vacation time at my regular rate of payment (a much higher rate of pay than my current rate, even after 20 years in the classroom).

At my current position as a public school teacher, I will be compensated upon retirement for all unused sick leave at a rate far less than my current daily rate of pay. I believe the true efficiency is to keep the classroom teacher in the classroom. If it takes offering a reduced rate of pay for unused sick leave at retirement to keep the teacher in the classroom, I am all for it.

It is becoming more and more apparent with each report from the so-called K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Commission that the true job of this task force, created by our Legislature, is to make both the classroom teachers and the teachers union out to be the enemy of public education. There could be nothing further from the truth. The vast majority of the schoolteachers I know are dedicated professionals who sacrifice their own personal time and money for the benefit of their students.

Must enforce

“Obama weighs his options on immigration” (Nov. 14 Eagle) reported: “Asserting his authority as president to enforce the nation’s laws with discretion, Obama intends to order changes that that will significantly refocus” – that means change the laws that guide – “the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents.”

“Discretion” is the freedom or authority to make decisions and choices, the power to judge or to act. The Constitution makes no such discretion with respect to the federal laws. It says that the president is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” The word “carefully” grants Obama no such discretion with respect to any laws passed by Congress. He cannot change them as he sees fit. His veto power does not change a law; it only sends it back to Congress for reconsideration.

It was largely just such erroneous and dangerous assumptions of power that led to his party’s recent defeats.

Besides that, the Constitution grants all federal legislative powers to Congress and denies those powers to the president and, by the way, to the Supreme Court.

Miss integrity

I frequently had concerns about the policies of President George W. Bush, but I never questioned his integrity or patriotism. He placed the welfare of the country above partisan politics and tried to do the right thing for all of us. I miss the respect he showed the American people and the honesty he brought to our White House.

This story was originally published November 22, 2014 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letters on Merrick, public sector, pension woes, teacher efficiency, Obama immigration reform."