Employees still get perks as county drowns in debt Re: “Use of taxpayer-funded vehicles jumps in MontCo,” April 24
Examiner reporter Brian Hughes’ informative article highlights just how much our county government takes from the citizenry. In the last three years, 87 more Montgomery County employees have permanently been assigned take-home vehicles. Union employees have done particularly well, gaining use of 70 additional taxpayer-funded vehicles in the same time frame.
With the county facing a budget shortfall of over $300 million, and with public safety services threatened, rising gasoline prices, and unknown costs for vehicle maintenance, the decision to provide employment perks of this magnitude to county employees is irresponsible.
With such a “laissez-faire” attitude, it is not surprising that the iron triangle of the single-party-dominated county executive, County Council, and organized labor continues to find ways to prosper at taxpayer expense.
Kurt S. Osuch
Chevy Chase
NLRB should butt out of union controversy
Re: “Boeing accused of retaliating against union,” April 20
South Carolinians are excited about possible Boeing jobs. The state offers qualified workers, a port at Charleston, inland port developments along Interstates 26 and 95, community college training, plus significant other advantages. Costs there are relatively low; two of our children recently purchased below-cost residences in South Carolina near where Boeing may offer higher-paying opportunities than Washington state.
While the South Carolina work force is very stable, workers there also recognize the right to make demands, receive final pay and then leave an employer without the permission of organized labor if working conditions become unacceptable.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers remains free to convince South Carolina workers of the benefits of joining a union, but workers should remain free to join or not. And the National Labor Relations Board should not interfere.
H.M. Grabman
Alexandria
Dwindling black population is D.C.’s own fault
Re: “D.C. is still a colonial pawn for Democrats,” Local Editorial, April 20
In “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” author James W. Loewen writes that when European settlers arrived in New England, they found the land virtually devoid of inhabitants. Having no natural resistance to diseases contracted from earlier contact with Europeans, native tribes had been decimated, only to be replaced by a new population.
Forward to today, where District Mayor Vincent Gray and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton protest being unable to provide abortions for low-income women while simultaneously lamenting that the District is becoming less of a “Chocolate City.”
Don’t they get it? The “native” (mostly black) population of the District is falling victim to the self-imposed “disease” of contraception and abortion and is being replaced by new “settlers.” District leaders cry “racism” when anyone has the temerity to mention this ongoing process.
Far be it from me to interfere with their “choice,” but forgive me if I neither exalt in it, nor want my tax dollars used to promote it.
Roger Johnson
Kensington
