Letters to the editor: Pensions, Ukraine and sky-high gas prices – HollandSentinel.com

House bill on pensions an insult to public workers

House Bill 5054 must be stopped in the Michigan Senate. This bill would allow the Department of Treasury to fund a $1.5 billion pension relief grant program without any real requirements. … This bill is an insult to every public worker who has taken concessions, such as reduced pension benefits, in an effort to help their communities become financially stable.

This bill means municipalities who have implemented reforms and pension plan adjustments, such as bridging down the benefits, capping overtime hours in pension benefits, closing the systems to new hires and deploying a 401k-style retirement benefit, would sit by as those communities who have not acted would receive millions of dollars in unrestricted bailouts. House Bill 5054 is a reward for bad behavior and failure to be good fiduciaries of taxpayer money.

Here in Port Huron, we didnt kick the can down the road. We are proud of the hard work we completed by working with our collective bargaining groups to implement the above reforms to our pension system. We saved our taxpayers more than $80 million, which will be reappropriated for years to come preserving and enhancing core public services such as police, fire, and parks and recreation.

Additionally, this bill would only prop up failing systems, creating a larger problem for the next generation. The Michigan Senate now has the opportunity to send a clear message to municipal leaders across the state: if you want relief, you must reform.

Everyone supports helping municipalities struggling with the burden of unfunded liabilities, but giving grants out without any meaningful reforms in exchange for this financial assistance is a disservice to the taxpayers of Michigan.

James Freed

City Manager, Port Huron

Morality of friend and foe

Today the world is rightfully appalled and standing up to our enemys violent occupation of Ukraine. It is time for us to have similar outrage and action against an occupation by one of our friends, Israel.

Why? Hear Palestinian theologian Munther Isaac, … the occupation has made us both (Palestinian and Israeli) victims ... affecting the soul of many Israelis. They are, in this manner, victims to their own acts of oppression. ... I began to see that they, too, need liberation again, not in the same manner that Palestinians need it. This reality is captured well by what Kairos Palestine declares about the occupation, that it is a "sin against God and humanity" because "it distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation."

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Fact: In the past 15 months Israeli soldiers have destroyed more than 1,000 Palestinian homes!

We are called to resist violence and occupation non-violently, not out of a spirit of revenge, but in the context of loving (even) our enemies. Do you support our nonviolent response to Russias oppression of Ukraine? Good! Now I call for our own similar nonviolent action regarding our ally Israels violent occupation of Palestine.

Bart Den Boer

Kairos West Michigan

Not everyone can afford to suffer sky-high gas prices

So unfortunate that Jeff Raywood was granted his wish, "Gas prices need to be higher, not lower."

As one of the "haves" Mr. Raywood has no sympathy for those of low or fixed income. Higher energy costs directly impact the costs of living higher rent, higher food prices; and he would deny the poor the freedom to travel because of high fuel prices.

More: My Take: Gas prices need to be higher, not lower

Electric vehicles for the haves, and solar and wind power, would not survive except for rebates and government subsidies. Only the "haves" will be able to have the freedom to travel by car, boat and plane. Michigan as a tourist destination will only be available to the "haves."

For sure America's high rate of inflation and energy costs are the result of the Biden administration's and Democrats' "pie in the sky" green energy politics and policies.

So, what can one do to survive in these days of Trouble? Proverbs 11:4 reads, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death." KJV

What can one do? Turn to God, the answer is Jesus!

Meredith Nienhuis

West Olive

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Letters to the editor: Pensions, Ukraine and sky-high gas prices - HollandSentinel.com