VSEA.org

"Why should public workers’ pension benefits be reduced to resolve the funding gap when they aren’t the fundamental cause of it in the first place? Why not make those who created the pension funding gap pay—the hedge funds, banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions that were responsible for the massive investment losses and the pension fund managers who negligently risked workers’ pensions? Or the politicians who let them?"

The comment is attributed to…Rep. Neal Kurk of Weare who, according to WMUR, said the following: “The problem with the N.H. Pension System is that people live too long. We’d be better off if we could get [public employees] to pick up smoking and they would die younger.”

Again, how low will these people go?

"To be fair, Mr. LePage does retain a sense of workplace opportunity. After his election last November, he named Lauren, his 22-year-old, fresh-from-college daughter, to what was termed an entry-level job as assistant to the governor’s chief of staff. At $41,000 a year, the post offers $10,000 more than the pay for workers who pass the teacher and police tests. That’s on top of Ms. LePage’s free room and board at the governor’s mansion."

"Pending requests to unionize have come from employees whose jobs traditionally fell into the category of “boss:” prison wardens and their assistants, state agencies’ chief fiscal officers, deputy agency directors, chiefs of staff, senior personnel officers and liaisons to the Legislature at social service, employment and regulatory agencies, according to the AP analysis of Labor Relations Board records."

"Elizabeth Skarie, a Williston psychologist who is married to Greenfield, and the 48 others who signed onto the letter aren’t buying that argument. Calling Vermont a unique and wonderful place, Skarie said: ‘I don’t know anyone who would move because they had to pay more taxes.’"