MORE THAN A FEW READERS WERE INSPIRED TO WRITE AFTER LAST SUNDAY’S COLUMN ABOUT PAY RAISES FOR POLITICIANS.

Tom Durkin of White Plains writes:

“Sunday’s column listed politicians’ arguments for raising their own
pay. Argument number 1 was that more dollars buys better office-holders.

I agree, but the problem is that the salary should be raised BEFORE
the election process so that better candidates will be enticed to run.

The present situation (where salaries are usually raised just AFTER
an election) is, I think, akin to deciding to pay more rent to get a
better apartment, BUT doing so right after agreeing to renew your
lease (and giving the extra money to your old landlord for the same
old lousy apartment).”

A Putnam resident (no name given) writes:

“Guess the big boys are teaching the little guys a thing or two or visa versa. Putnam Valley sure learned good!! And it ain’t over yet.”

And then there’s this long one from loyal readers Bob and Jenny Petrucci:

Re: “The Democrats take their money from the taxpayers and the Republicans take theirs from the lobbyists.”. In our view, the Republicans take from both (and so would the Dems were the roles reversed…”politics”, you know). Remember what your “friend” said a number of years ago…in essence, that the reason why they win is because they spread it around. How nice it is that they can cut deals to have a certain amount of Republicans given/holding jobs under a Democratic administration. Does that not smell? And let’s not forget the “rumors” during certain “elections”. And even in “redistricting”. Does all that come without some “obligations”? In other words, “Stick with us; it’s US politicians against them”. Also, when we complained about many things that were happening, Republican “LEADERS and ELECTED officials” said, “Don’t blame us. We’re outnumbered 9-8” (at that time). Uh, excuse us, but where does it say in their job description that the Dems are required to lose whenever they can take over the majority? Our response is, “Well if we can’t blame you for not getting more of you elected, who else is there to blame?”. Their refusal to take responsibility (or ANY action) later made it 11-6. We think it could have been worse
but the Dems let them have some turf (spread it around like expensive butter). And that pattern runs throughout the county. As long as it does, with now a virtually non-existent Republican Party, with any semblance of it existing at/from the largesse of the Democratic Party, no one (almost as if under contractual agreement) is about to fight them. Is the word “cahoots”? Let’s not forget the countless number of things our people (and you guys) brought to them; factual, documented things, with some in particular that (with many of them lawyers) all they had to do was start legal proceedings. And what did they do? Absolutely nothing. Hmmm, why? In fact, they gave us the MOST resistance. Re: the more money for good people below….they got more money and it didn’t bring in good people. All it did was bring in more of the same….listeners of that politico radio station “WIIFM”, well known as “What’s In It For Me”. And then, when it’s time for a vote, they prance out all their “cronies, associates and other form of vested, paid for, interests” to speak publicly so as to have window-dressing for their pre-determined vote.