Lane/Tommy: Recently there have been a couple of interesting statistics relative to the private sector and government employees that one should find shocking. We have to wonder if we no longer have a government that we can afford or perhaps it has become a government with an out of control spending habit which now has to be curtailed.

It makes no difference if it’s Windham, Cumberland County, the state of Maine or Washington, D.C. It only gets worse the higher where one looks in government. The lack of accountability is growing at the same time.

Lane: One scary figure from the Bureau of Labor shows that government salaries have not only grown larger than those in the private sector, they are also growing faster. The average hourly salary in 2007 for a public employee was $39.50 while the salary of a private sector employee was $26.09. This means our ability to pay for such increases is diminishing while taxes are increasing.

It’s time for the fat cats in government to go on a fiscal diet. It appears to me our situation is far worse than before the American Revolution where citizens complained of a heavy tax burden by the King of England. Have we become our worse enemies?

Tommy: Have our local governments and state legislature become addicted to their spending habits just like the habits of an alcoholic or drug abuser? If an average worker runs out of money, doesn’t that mean the end of spending? When government at any level runs out of money they scream that they must have more because they deserve it.

Taking money away from politicians is no different than preventing a drug abuser from getting drugs. Oh yeah, politicians will scream until their throats are sore, threaten all services will cease and your house will burn down so it’s time to tell them we are in charge of their spending habits.

Lane/Tommy: A member of the Windham School Board was recently quoted that the salary of the supervisor at the school bus garage should be increased by $12,000 in order to attract a qualified individual. First and foremost we must state that we know the recent incident with a school bus driver involved either a cover-up by school officials or such a lapse of oversight that the entire leadership must go. Increasing the salary will only increase our taxes.

Lane: While on the subject of the Windham School Department I wonder why they don’t have a written policy in place to prevent bullying or hazing of students. If I am correct, in 2004 the Maine Legislature passed a law that all school districts must have a written policy in place by 2006. It is now 2008 and a member of the school board stated that the policy has just gone to committee. To me, this means another incident of incompetence from our school department.

Lane/Tommy: There is a clear lack of communication between Windham citizens and their government whether it’s over the budget or personnel matters that appear totally mishandled. Our experience has been that the voters are treated like mushrooms. Will this be another year of darkness and manure or one of sunshine and openness?

Lane and Tommy feel just like the following quote from Kelvin Throop: “If people behaved like governments, you’d call the cops.”