Public Sector

THE GOVERNMENT competing against the private sector, as in Wireless Philadelphia, is unfair. The price can be low because there is a subsidy. In this case, it's likely to be free pole attachments for the vendor and lower taxes, as well as reduced or non-existent franchise fees. And it's not just Verizon or Comcast getting hurt. What about retail computer stores? We should be giving kudos to Verizon and Comcast for not moving out of the city, not making it more difficult to justify staying in a city that is clearly becoming more hostile.

Re: Eli Hiller's June 9 commentary, "N.J. cannot afford to keep its web of political fiefdoms. " State Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney (D., Gloucester) may have offended state employees with his recent call for them to take a voluntary pay cut of 15 percent. Unfortunately, while well ahead of the legislative curve, Sweeney's analysis of the cause and effect of New Jersey's fiscal woes will be echoed again and again in the coming months and years. As Hiller noted, New Jersey has more than 500,000 public-sector employees and thousands of public retirees who together annually consume more than $30 billion in compensation and benefits.

Most employees of public unions want to point the blame for many of our problems away from their unions ("Don't blame the unions for corporate misdeeds," Tuesday). While it's true that there have been plenty of corporate misdeeds, public unions are also a large part of the problem. As the letter writer correctly states, average taxpayers never begrudge civil servants the opportunity to earn a respectable wage, job security, excellent benefits, and the ability for a comfortable retirement when times are good and everyone is benefiting from a strong economy.

In this corner, with assets of $81 million and an idea he calls a "better mousetrap" to beat college-cost inflation, is Peter Roberts, enterprising banker. Over there, with billions of dollars in bond-issuing authority and the power to dispense tax breaks to their citizens, are the governments of California, New Jersey and other states. The question: Who has the best deal for anxious parents trying to save for their children's college educations? Roberts, the founder and chairman of College Savings Bank, a five-year-old institution with a Princeton address and a single product aimed at parents saving for college, is convinced he has the answer - convinced enough to launch a kind of one-bank protest movement against government-sponsored college-savings plans.

As a retired, taxpaying Democrat, I started reading Harold Jackson's column "Democrats have labor card but must play it right" (Sunday) expecting a blanket attack on the "anti-union" efforts going on around the country. As a former vice president of a Philadelphia-based manufacturer, I have a long history with private-sector unions. Despite tough negotiations (and short strikes), I always felt that the unions provided a voice and leverage necessary to maintain a balance within the community of interest we shared as employees of a company competing in the marketplace.

A former school security guard who admitted to helping three high school girls audition for jobs as exotic dancers was barred yesterday from working in the public sector for life. Marlon Bounds, 38, of Willingboro, also was sentenced in state Superior Court of Camden County to two years' probation and 50 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty in October to three counts of abuse and neglect of children. Bounds was a security guard at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden when he took two girls, ages 16 and 17, to audition at dance clubs in late 1997, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Last summer, 5,960 New Jersey teens and young adults landed jobs through a $17.7 million stimulus program, but almost none found work in the private sector. The state ignored a federal guideline by placing participants in public and nonprofit jobs only, state Comptroller Matthew Boxer said in an audit released Thursday. That's significant, Boxer said, because private jobs are more likely to translate to longer-term employment. "We took the $17 million we were given and, yeah, we paid the summer wages, but we didn't maximize the benefits that should have come to young workers," he said.

Not donating to Komen Missy Stein stated that the reason fund-raising was down this year for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was because of the "Planned Parenthood debacle" ("Apologizing for Komen's errors," Friday). She is only partly correct. The reason that I and many of my friends have not donated to Komen this year is because of its support of Planned Parenthood. We wanted to show our opposition to how this was handled by the Komen organization. Our donations will go to other women's cancer charities that do not support the Planned Parenthood agenda.

When Haddon Heights Mayor Scott Alexander launched a website for his consulting business last month, he targeted municipal and school officials looking to develop a presence on Twitter or set up a system to pay parking tickets online. One of his selling points? His experience as mayor. "Scott's unique blend of thought leadership in Web services and serving in an elected position bring unmatched experience for PoliticWeb," reads part of his online biography on politicweb.com., which Alexander described as a partnership between his firm and a Web design company.

Most unions have suffered dramatic decreases in membership over the past several decades. Most private sector unions, that is. At the same time, public sector labor forces have enjoyed a tremendous upswing. From 1973-1983, while AFSCME, the largest public sector union and an AFL- CIO affiliate, increased its membership by 66 percent, other large private sector unions lost an overwhelming number of workers: the United Steel Workers lost 44 percent of their membership, the United Mine Workers lost 42 percent and the United Auto Workers 32 percent.

Not donating to Komen Missy Stein stated that the reason fund-raising was down this year for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was because of the "Planned Parenthood debacle" ("Apologizing for Komen's errors," Friday). She is only partly correct. The reason that I and many of my friends have not donated to Komen this year is because of its support of Planned Parenthood. We wanted to show our opposition to how this was handled by the Komen organization. Our donations will go to other women's cancer charities that do not support the Planned Parenthood agenda.

Flying to Florida for a winter break, I was reminded that the country's 40,000-plus Transportation Security Administration workers will soon be unionized. When the TSA was launched to handle airport security as a government agency, it was promised that it would never be unionized since this would be inconsistent with the role it might have to play in a crisis: "Work rules" like those at GM, for example, could raise costs to taxpayers and inhibit the ability of management to redeploy or reorganize the workforce in an emergency.

LONDON - Paramedics, emergency crews, teachers, and even some employees from the prime minister's office took to the streets of Britain for the country's largest strike in decades - drawing attention to government cuts but failing to bring the nation to a standstill. Public-sector employees staged the one-day walkout Wednesday over government demands that they work longer before receiving a pension and pay more in monthly contributions, part of austerity measures to tackle Britain's $1.5 trillion debt.

RE COUNCILMAN Greenlee's letter: You just don't get it! I guess 30 years of public-sector employment will do that. I own two businesses in Center city and am struggling to stay above water. The economy is still in a recession and you are actually considering paid sick days for all private-sector employees in the city. I can't believe it! You say that "if sick days are good enough for government employees and the Comcasts of the world, then everyone should be entitled. " Look at the public sector.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Thursday that he plans to pull from his public-worker health-insurance proposal a provision that would bar entry into the state health-benefits pool. The legislation had been targeted by critics who called the provision a boon to the insurance industry, and noted Sweeney's close relationship to George E. Norcross III, a Democratic powerbroker and founder of the insurance brokerage Conner Strong. Sweeney (D., Gloucester) said Thursday that he did not want to let that portion of his bill derail the larger issue of bringing down the cost of health insurance for public workers in the state.

YEARS ago, I lived in Rome for a while. Despite the obvious pluses, there was one monumental drawback: customer service in the public sector. Like toadstools, the workers were toxic, ubiquitous and impossible to get rid of. Which, of course, meant they had absolutely no incentive to be efficient, much less polite. I'd often gloat to my Italian friends that Americans understood the work ethic so much better than they did. I'd tell them about smiling employees who said, "Have a nice day" and didn't treat you like a cold sore.

As a retired, taxpaying Democrat, I started reading Harold Jackson's column "Democrats have labor card but must play it right" (Sunday) expecting a blanket attack on the "anti-union" efforts going on around the country. As a former vice president of a Philadelphia-based manufacturer, I have a long history with private-sector unions. Despite tough negotiations (and short strikes), I always felt that the unions provided a voice and leverage necessary to maintain a balance within the community of interest we shared as employees of a company competing in the marketplace.

He is worried, he says, about a lot: the future of the bankrupt supermarket chain he works for, the midcareer colleagues who feel trapped and hopeless, and anyone, really, who strives for a middle-class life anymore. He's been stocking shelves and moving groceries through the checkout line for the same Philadelphia-area chain since the Vietnam War. It's how he put a child through college, bought a $28,000 rowhouse, and pays for the occasional movie when he and his wife go out for a treat.