To the editor:

I attended the town meeting at the city hall on Tues., Jan. 31, and I was excited about being able to hear from our legislative body. While there we discussed the future of this great state that we all love. It seems that the bright light of the future is growing dim, though. I also wanted to attend the meeting in Florala, but had prior situations to come into play. You see I am a state employee and I have been in the retirement system of the State of Alabama for more than 23 years. I am vested and hope to retire in the not-so-distant future. The dream of retirement has evolved from a positive outlook into a horrifying nightmare.

With the new regulations of not counting overtime on your retirement calculations, along with the insurance issues that make it outrageously high absolutely impossible to retire at a fairly young age. Not to mention a drought in the cost of living increases and merit raises of yester years. We as state employees and also public employees will be fighting everyday during this legislative session to try and keep the benefits that we currently have, we are already nearly to the point of having to pay the state to work for it. As our wonderful educators are doing in their individual classrooms. Now we are hearing rumors of combining agencies and cutting more jobs and bringing in foreign businesses and giving them money to come here, I thought we were broke. I would call upon all the citizens of this county to remember, Democrats and Republicans alike, we all are suffering. Let us send a message to the legislature and advise them that they still work for the people of the State of Alabama and more specifically the local politicians work for the people of this great county. Let’s ask them to stop going with the crowd and go with the home team. Because we are the people that give them the opportunity to be able to step up to the plate and be in the game.

 

Thomas C. Price

Andalusia