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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter from Butte County employee Byron Bace regarding contract negotiations Dear Honorable Chairman Connelly and members of the Butte County Board of Supervisors; I am a proud union member of Butte County Employees Association, and an employee for Butte County Public Health. In addition, I am a resident of Butte County. Health Care premiums will soon become unaffordable for me and my family. We are your employees who serve the public, and we cannot make ends meet with the health care premium increase. I'm requesting that you take this into consideration to negotiate a fair contract with Butte County employees, which includes County paying a fair share of health care costs as a benefit to the employee. We Butte County Employees have already taken a devastating hit with our PERS, which is no longer much of a benefit. I personally took a very substantial cut in take—home-pay because of this ($227 a month!). The proposed increase in health care costs will take from me an additional $140 a month in take-home-pay. So this will be, in the last two years, $367 a month less in take home pay and not even a COLA to offset it. It's like back to the days before the salary study! For me, there goes the yearly family vacation! Spending your two-week vacation in Bidwell Park is just NOT the same as going on a "real" vacation. Besides, our already lack luster economy has taken an additional big hit when I and other employees don't have the money to spend into it. Because we are losing our once-attractive benefits each year, one-by-one, we also see that we are losing our young, well educated, very bright staff. Several months ago we lost a very intelligent young woman with a master's degree in Public Health. She was destined to become a manager or supervisor. She is long gone to better pastures. In about a month we are losing another very bright young woman who also would have been a great candidate to be a leader here at Public Health. Young educated career- seekers are not going to put 30 years of life and hard work into a questionable future for themselves. I too will be leaving Butte County employment. I have decided to retire five years early rather than stay and watch even more benefits, maybe even my whole retirement itself, blow away in the sequestering wind! I will be encouraging other "baby-boomers" to do the same; to retire early, buck the system, enjoy what's left of their lives and be part of the last generation in America who can do so! I will encourage them not to spend their retirement, and their money, struggling the whole time trying to make it here in this country, but to retire overseas where in many countries they can live a worry-free, very comfortable life, and spend their money there! There are about a dozen, beautiful, safe, comfortable, and inexpensive (and tax haven) countries where you can retire and live an upper class life on a Social Security check! I will tell retirees not to feel like they are stuck here in "sequester America" and just have to continue to put up with it. These other countries have modern health care with U.S.-trained doctors and the health care is either free or for $50-$100 a person retirees can have the "Cadillac" plan. SONIO(FSUPERVISORS OCT 022013 ✓ OROVILLE,CALIFORNIA In a few of these countries you can live well on only$500 a month per person. And in several others your living expense would even include a maid and a gardener! And you could live near or right on the beach! I have been researching cost of living and standard of living in these other countries for four years now. I was going to keep this information all to myself, and ensure my retirement space before other "Baby-Boomers" find out and maybe drive the prices up. But I am so upset with this country's attack on the public worker, the old, the retired,the pensions, Social Security, Medicare,workers in general and everything else for that matter; the "profits over people" and the "one dollar- one vote" greedy mentality that I am going to ahead and share my information with other would-be ex-patriots. How healthy would the economy be in this country if all the "Baby-Boomers" left and took their wealth with them? Not too good I'm sure. Unlike our children and their children's children who will unfortunately be slaves and work their fingers to the bone until they die, "Baby-Boomers" do not have to succumb to this fate. They don't have to accept these austerity measures and punishing sequestering. They can just LEAVE the country, go ahead and enjoy the last great retirements in American history and have the pleasure of not feeding the beast- another dime more-than they already have to in this country. Sincerely, Byron Brace Health Education Specialist, Sr.