LETTER: There are too many city workers for our population

To the editor:

The number of cities in the USA declaring bankruptcy and/or lowering salaries for their public service employees is already staggering and there are numerous more on the horizon.

The most recent is Scranton, Pa., with a population of 300,000 people and includes 400 city employees.They simply cannot afford to pay their city workers and the banks won't borrow them any more money leaving their Mayor with no choice but to raise taxes 78 per cent  (yes 78 poer cent) or to educe all city workers salaries including the Mayor's.

So when you look at our own backyard here in TBAY we have a city of 100,000 people with a public city workforce of 1,855 workers, I have to ask the question, how can we with only a third of Scranton's population, support four and half times more workers with higher salaries then they have ? I think it is a fair question that more of us should be asking of our city council. 

I guess you only have to look at how high our property taxes are, to see how our administration is doing it...Simple really, spend, spend, spend, provide increases in wages and benefits to the city workers, and then at the end of the year raise taxes to pay for it..

When you have 1,855 workers and their families that will continue to vote for you  in every election as long as you give them what they want, nothing ever changes...

So here's another question for our Mayor and council, should I be thinking of selling my home now before you raise taxes to the point where I won't be able to give it away?

Margaret MacMillan,
Thunder Bay