“kind of subjective to say who gets furloughed and who doesn’t”
That has certainly been true at the state and local levels. There have been several attempts to institute a furlough program for state of Illinois employees (of which I am one). However, since the majority of employees are unionized (although I am not), and union employees can’t be forced to do anything not in their contract, the bulk of the furloughs and pay cuts falls on a narrow segment of non-union employees.
“Furloughs really hurt the little guys… those who can least afford it”
At one point earlier this year there was serious talk of making the non-union people take 24 furlough days a year – that’s right, almost a full MONTH without pay – but that plan has since been scrapped. Although they tend to be in “managerial” positions they are NOT, for the most part, the highly paid political appointees everyone loves to hate. Many are making only 30K to 40K a year, sometimes less. If they have families depending on them, or mortgages, student loans, medical bills, etc. to pay, taking away a full month’s pay or even two week’s pay is a pretty severe financial hit.
I have to admit I’m a bit biased on this issue, but sometimes I think this whole “public employees have it too good and need to be cut down to size” movement is getting out of hand. Yes, I realize that we have to cut back somewhere and big government can’t just keep growing indefinitely. And I know that something has to be done about unfunded pension liabilities which are a HUGE financial issue for many states and local goverments.
I can live with not getting a raise every year (I haven’t gotten one for the past 3 years), paying more for my health insurance every year (better a small increase every year than a huge increase all at once), fewer holidays, even a higher retirement age. If the money isn’t there to fund certain benefits, it ain’t there and that has to be faced. However, “overpaid” public employees are not the root of all fiscal evil as some fiscal conservatives seem to think. (It pains me to say that since I consider myself pretty conservative.) And all the sacrifices should be proportionate, and should not be demanded of only certain people while everyone else is excused.
