To the editor:

This is in response to Selena Cuffee-Glenn’s new city budget proposal.

City Council seems to be unable to come to grips with any reductions in the budget unless the payroll reductions fall on low-paid personnel. How is it that we keep re-electing the same people year after year, when they can’t seem to find anything to cut except lower-end salaries and the school budget.

They have such a high opinion of the administrators who are living on such paltry five- and six-figure incomes that they need a raise. Let’s remember that the last real wage survey showed government workers on average making 50 to 100 percent more than their civilian counterparts.

You should publish all the public salaries, including all the perks/benefits (no names) each budget cycle so we can see how city employees compare to their civilian counterparts, who also pay the city employees’ wages. Only then will we know if we should raise them.

How many taxpayers right now in this city are unemployed or under-employed because of this economy? We have to pay for what the council decides, and right now can we? How much more tax can we bear? I’m about tapped out. How about you?

Suffolk taxpayers should go to the council meeting April 18 and voice their opinions — nicely.

Steve Omtvedt
Suffolk