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Letter to the editor/East
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Regarding the article, "Preliminary Gateway budget includes tax hike, teacher furloughs" dated June 5, it was pointed out that teacher pension and personnel costs make up 67 percent of the district's budget. It's only going to get worse.
In Pennsylvania, teachers benefits are negotiated through union contracts and the pensions are guaranteed by law.
We the people should be pounding Harrisburg, not the school districts, to change the laws and end the collective bargaining process for public employees -- including teachers -- in Pennsylvania.
Much of corporate America and the private sector abandoned pension programs years ago. The same needs to happen in the public sector. We cannot keep sustaining property tax increase after increase to preserve the "rights" of public employees.
MICHAEL O'BRIEN
Monroeville
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First Published June 14, 2012 5:05 am
