The LuLac Edition #887, July 25th, 2009
PHOTO INDEX: OUR INTERVIEW LOGO.
INTERVIEW
Friday I sat down with a person I know who works for the State of Pennsylvania. His last real payday, albeit a smaller one will be next week. If the state doesn’t pass a budget by then, he’ll be working for nothing. I asked a few questions and he was brutally honest.
Q: You offered to buy lunch, what’ya nuts?
A: No, common courtesy. If you’re buying, I‘m ordering three more hot dogs.
Q: How are you getting by?
A: Pretty well so far although I am dipping into what little savings I have. I used the bulk of it to buy a house and pay off credit card bills so I’m cash poor at this point. But I’m cutting back. Walking more. Burning more videos instead of buying them.
Q: You job as a Corrections Officer, is it suffering because of the budget battle?
A: My situation is unique. You don’t want to slack off or be lazy because that might impact the safety of you and your team leaders or members.We've had call offs but not to the point that it's made our work any harder. I mean you don’t want a guy to get hurt because of the freaking budget. Morale is interesting because it’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when you are on the other side of the bars from a guy locked up for life. But you do wonder when this is all going to shake down.
Q: Are blaming anyone in particular? Mad at anyone?
A: From what I read, there’s a lot of blame to go around. I’m not mad at the Governor though because he’s been asking to get this done since February. I think the Legislators are the ones that have not even made an effort to cut back any of their perks. I mean I carpool to work with a bunch of guys. Do they? I’d like $600.00 a month to get a nice ride for free. Well technically I’m paying for it.
Q: If things get tougher and you are not paid for a while do you have a support system?
A: Normally my wife would be that. But she works at Wilkes Barre General and the new owners are staring down the nurses in an upcoming contract dispute. So that’s an uncertainty there if they go on strike. And I’m against strikes but if she has to go, she has to go. There’s always my mom and dad but I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.
Q: Would you accept higher taxes to get this done?
A: Yes. As a state worker I see firsthand the services people get. Education, library funding, work training program for inmates, roads, that type of stuff people take for granted. It seems to me though the delivery system of the tax money to the agencies if messed up. Why should a lawmaker or even the Governor make three times more to deliver the money to the people that implement the system? It’s like paying the guy who holds the gold more than the miners who dig it out of the earth. From what I see on my tax forms, the taxes to the state are the lowest in the country. So what’s the sweat. Let’s just get this done.
Q: So you believe that payer higher taxes is like a type of dues for living in this country and state?
A: **** no! That’s really ****ed up. You believe that?
Q: Yes, don’t you?
A: Uh, **** no! Jesus, if I had known you felt that way I would’ve asked you to meet me at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It would be your dues for interviewing me.
Q: Smartass.
A: Yeah, I try.
posted by David Yonki @ 9:35 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
interesting who he blames. Not Governor Ed but the lawmakers. And yet no one run against them in a primary. SAD.
State workers really have it good the rest of the year. Your subject is at least an adult about this, but some of the cry babies I've seen on TV, as Bob Mellow would say, "Get A Life". I'm unemployed, I'd be happy with their over time.
i'M GUESSING THIS THING WILL BEV OVER by september.
hey 1:34pm, we aren't a little bitter are we?
Ahhhh.....the wife's salary! You know if it weren't for the women working in LuLac land, the men would be at the soup kitchen! Seriously this area is so ass backwards as Yonk would say. The high paying jobs for men aren't there. The education jobs for men ain't there either unless you grase a palm or something else. They'll pay the women because they're afraid of a lawsuit. Good luck man. But I'd bet my ass your wife makes more than you and I bet you have twice her education.
7:22 She does and I do! Welcome to LuLacland. Whats that smell?
Another whole story line there Yonk- The WBGH nurses going on strike. Dr. Host, Jack Mccarthy, Rusty Flack, etc, were so pissed off when the nurses unionized, they unloaded Wyoming Valley Health Care to a union-busting company. I would love to see the FBI investigate those former board of directors to see where the money from the last 20 years actually went. And yonk- You were hospitalized not so long ago- The nurses are really short-staffed and getting burned out. The hospitals have cut the lpns/nursing assistants down, and anyone that's been in for a hospital stay knows that 2-3 people are needed to assist when you are bed-ridden. Companys squeezing at the wrong end....
IN RESPONSE
And yonk- You were hospitalized not so long ago- The nurses are really short-staffed and getting burned out. The hospitals have cut the lpns/nursing assistants down, and anyone that's been in for a hospital stay knows that 2-3 people are needed to assist when you are bed-ridden. Companys squeezing at the wrong end....
MY HOSPITAL STAY LASTED 9 DAYS LAST YEAR. AND FOR THE FIRST THREE DAYS AFTER SURGERY I WAS PRETTY MUCH OUT OF IT EXCEPT FOR WATCHING THE ALL STAR GAME THE FIRST NIGHT. THE NURSES I HAD WERE SUPERIOR AND I NOTICED THEN THEY WERE RUNNING RAGGED. AFTER I GOT MY BEARINGS AND THEY ALLOWED ME TO WALK, I PRETTY MUCH TRIED NOT TO BOTHER THEM BECAUSE THEY WERE SO SWAMPED. BUT NEVER, EVER DID I HEAR A WORD FROM THEM ABOUT OVERWORK. I OBSERVED IT MYSELF. A LOT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT DOCTORS AND WHAT THEY MAKE. MY BILL AT THE END OF MY STAY SHOWED THAT THE HOSPITAL GOT PAID $39,000 AND CHANGE. THE SURGEON, THE GUY WHO ESSENTIALLY SAVED MY LIFE, (AND DURING MY SICKNESS LAST YEAR I LACKED THE BASIC COMMON SENSE AS A DEFENSIVE MECHANISM NOT TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION, SO IT'S ONLY IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR THAT I SEE HOW SKETCHY IT ALL WAS) WAS PAID ONLY $1400.00. TO PUT THAT IN PERSPECTIVE FOR YOU, WHEN MY DOG NEEDED SURGERY LAST SUMMER, THE VET WAS PAID $900.00.
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