Middletown GOP likes taxpayer-paid pension just fine

Middletown GOP likes taxpayer-paid pensions just fine

Mayor Gerard P. Scharfenberger announced at the most recent session of the Middletown Committee that he is under the impression taxpayers should foot the bill for politicians' pension and other benefits.

Well, that is where there is going to be a disagreement between the Middletown Republican Party and the Middletown Democratic Party. Personally, I am solidly in the Middletown Democrats' corner with regard to pensions for politicians and their Good Old Boy network. It's not OK.

Our Founding Fathers believed government should be an expense for financially-secure people. The idea is that the private sector, and not the public sector, is an acceptable place for elected people to earn their fortunes. The taxpayers should pay for working people employed by the municipality and not these part-time gentleman politicians seeking an easy living for following some ridiculous party line.

Professional municipal politicians only leads to office holders who are entirely dependent on some hometown boss who will be able to have his or her way with the offices elected officials hold by holding their politicial futures over their heads, as currently exists in the Middletown GOP.

Smart and talented people who hold elected office work in the private sector. They should be the ones running governments in towns. It's not a matter of being independently wealthy, it is a matter of being able to hold and keep a regular job. In the GOP, many of the office holders currently there claim to be "retired," albeit without a pension, hence they need to be supported by taxpayers. My advice: Find and secure meaningful employment or move back with parents.