…One of the governor’s solutions to the budget crisis is to force bureaucrats to take one day every two weeks without pay. This, if carried to the logical point, might really be an acceptable part of the solution. It should start at the top with the governor and all of his staff taking one day without pay each and every two weeks; also the legislators and members of the judicial; then continue into all the various persons who receive money from the state treasury — teachers, shovelers, drivers, fixers, cleaners, painters, artists, jailers.

Then, no one will need to go on the dole or be retrained for hoped-for jobs. Nor will there be a lot of former state workers lined up to receive weekly checks from the nearly depleted unemployment fund. Let’s tell all the nay-sayers this is fair, for the last-hired employee is the one least likely to be able to live without help from those who will be drawing full pay from the state treasury. So, let them all continue working, and let them all receive enough money to keep the oil furnace burning and food on the table….

When one hurts, let us all bear our rightful pain. For the truth is that if the state government lays off workers, those who work will support them one way or another. Phil Turner Caribou