Government Workers

According to Occupy Wall Street protesters and Democrats, the Grinch stealing Christmas this season is the collective corpus of bankers, hedge fund managers and other financial-sector bigwigs who don't pay their fair share in taxes. It's easy to see why. They make perfect scapegoats for unemployed college graduates with lots of debt, big-government liberals and others who want to believe a black-and-white narrative of the country's financial collapse and blame someone. But protesters and others should hold a mirror up to themselves and check the facts on the "1 percent.

Even as Congress and the White House appeared to be at a standoff over the fiscal cliff last month, lawmakers and the president were able to agree on at least one thing: an update of the Hatch Act. The 1939 law prohibits federal employees and certain state and local workers from engaging in partisan political activity on the taxpayer's dime. Violators typically have faced two types of penalties - both severe. Congress passed bipartisan legislation in December that broadened the range of penalties and loosened the rules so that most state and local government workers - including those in the District of Columbia - can run for partisan elective office.

Travelers gripe about having to remove shoes while going through airport security or undergoing full-body pat-downs. But imagine being the Transportation Security Administration screener who has to deal with thousands of grumpy passengers daily or must rummage through strangers' dirty underwear to look for items that could blow up a plane. It is not surprising that TSA employees rank among the federal workers who are least content with their jobs. Some of the most satisfied employees year-in, year-out work at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that encourages careers in government.

Competition does matter.Beginning next month, government workers will pay $30 to fly from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Baltimore.That's down from the current one-way fare of $199.The change reflects newly negotiated airfares for government workers, announced by the U.S. General Services Administration, the agency that provides services to federal workers.Some other fares have dropped sharply since Southwest Airlines began serving Raleigh-Durham International in North Carolina in June.

Since the sole purpose of freezing federal pay ( "The call for civil sacrifice," Dec. 1) is to show fiscal discipline, if we freeze pay on all government workers we must include all employees of government contractors, and reduce contractors' pay to the equivalent government job they are replacing. It would make government more efficient. For those contractors that have overhead expenses like executive pay in excess of the equivalent government executive, obviously we cannot afford, with our budget deficit, to keep them on and would have to save money by bringing the jobs into the government.

Thomas Schaller make a case for how the private sector can be just as if not more flawed than the public sector ("Sure, government is flawed - but markets are too," May 16). One aspect of the comparison that he (perhaps intentionally?) failed to mention, however, is that in the private sector, dissatisfied customers always have the option of switching to a different vendor, bank, insurance carrier, etc. That's not the case with any government agency. That is where the private sector excels over the public sector.

Should teachers forgo pay raises to ease the budget vise gripping local governments? School supporters and advocacy groups say teachers are moving only now toward the kind of pay they deserve. Slashing increases, they contend, would be a blow to education reform and teacher morale. If local jurisdictions are serious about education, say the unions, it should be funded at any cost.Cost is the problem. Most local governments are staring at steadily worsening revenue shortfalls and strong citizen opposition to higher taxes.

Even people who do not live in Annapolis should be paying attention to the controversy over privatizing the state capital's trash collection at the expense of 29 city workers.As government leaders at all levels look for ways to save money, privatization is becoming an increasingly popular option. But it's an option that is slow to gain converts because no one can get past the question of whether it's fair to privatize if it means putting government workers out of a job.Until recently, there has been an unwritten understanding that while a government job may pay modestly, it was secure.

When the times are tough, things can get a little weird.Consider: Some County Council members have been publicly griping that the county executive should restore $500,000 allocated by her predecessor soa new animal shelter for homeless pets can be built. I call this project the "Dog and Cat Hotel."But there's been no din rising from elected officials for action and an infusion of emergency county money since it was disclosed recently that the agency that provides food, shelter and other services to Harford's homeless people was about pluck out of money.

It seems lost in the budget cutting news and rhetoric that significant cuts to private sector businesses are likely to occur as the federal, state, and local governments cut back on domestic spending across the board. Small and medium size businesses sell many goods and services to the government, and without necessary government spending, their private sector businesses (and accompanying employment) suffer also. These examples include mom and pop restaurants serving government workers locally and various vendors and contractors, whether to sell office supplies or specialized consulting expertise.