Governor Perdue, We are writing this in response to your proposal to reduce state employees salaries by 1 ½ - 5%. We implore you to reconsider this option. We realize that for people at your salary level, the salary level of those who will decide on the merits on this proposal and for your closest advisors this does not seem a hardship. For those of us at the other end of the economic spectrum it can easily mean the difference between things like having a home, a vehicle, clothing and food for our families or the other necessities of life. We are already living with a discretionary income that has been slashed to the bone, and we know it is only going to get worse. The cost of our utilities keeps rising, the cost of gas continues its climb, our grocery bills only increase and we know none of these are going to change. Our salaries have not and are not growing to match the cost of living increases that have taken place over the last few years and now we face the spectre of falling even further behind in this insane race. Already we come to work each day wondering if this is going to be the day we find out our jobs have been eliminated and now we have to come to work with the gnawing prospect that very soon our job is not going to pay enough to take care of our families. Yet we have no other option. There are no jobs in private enterprise for us to leave for, for some of us our work and life schedules prohibit a part time job, of which there are fewer and fewer to be had, to cover the loss of income you propose. We know that for those of us who have our jobs eliminated there will be no other positions you can move us to as doing so would mean no actual savings to the state. Of course you can always just offer the position of correctional officer in a prison, which very few of us are capable of doing, and when we have to turn that down, you can fall back on the fact you offered us a position and it was thus our choice to not have a job. We understand the deficit in the state budget is real. We also understand that it is not the cost of employee salaries and benefits, which are also steadily eroding, that have placed the state in this position. Yet we are the ones who are being asked to take the brunt of the failed policies, pork barrel politics and overall failings of our state and federal political systems and economy. We know that with this decrease many of us are going to lose our homes. There simply is nothing else that can be cut from family budgets Selling our homes is not an option, as the market is bleak and many of us do not have enough equity built up to make that a viable option. So foreclosure will be the result, and homelessness is a great possibility as even if we could find a rental place for our families to live prior to that we will not have the money to pay the initial deposits required. The impact of the foreclosure on our credit history will destroy our ability to purchase another home or even to rent one that is in a decent neighborhood. At this point the best we can hope for is to find one of those almost non-existent part time jobs, compatible with our work schedule and one that we can physically perform, as for many of us, our physical limitations rule out multiple options. It will reduce our lives to working and sleeping, no time for our families, and doing nothing more than allowing us to continue to have a roof over our heads. If you have read this far, and are intent on your decision to make this salary reduction, we would offer the following option. If instead of a flat out reduction, simply furlough every employee, including your staff, one day every two months. It will equate to roughly the same amount of savings, and will at least let us offset the cost somewhat by our not having to use the gas to commute to and from work that day. Governor, we know the economy is forcing you into hard decisions, but we urge you to look at the consequences of what you are proposing. This wage decrease is not going to save the state money, as it is going to cause more and more people to require public assistance. It is going to take more money out of the state economy as it reduces the amount of money the state employees are going to have to spend. The priorities of house and car will always have to come first, followed by food and clothing. Things that can enhance our lives, like cable tv, internet access, toys for your kids, that once a month dining out at McDonalds, all will be further cut or outright eliminated from the family budget. Family pets will have to be put down as taking care of them will no longer be feasible. It means smaller amounts spent at the grocery store, although there are only so many nights one can serve their family Ramen noodles, things like trying to ride out the flu instead of buying the medications that can help alleviate those symptoms. The last also means either more expenditure of our sick time or exposing more of our co-workers to communicable illnesses. Our children will not have the parental presence and guidance that is so vitally important to their lives. The internet access that is so key to their education will no longer be available at home and we parents will not be there to help with their homework. Governor, we realize the above paragraph may seem like hyperbole, but it is not. We do not think you and the legislature quite comprehend the plight that many, if not most, state employees are in. We have accepted there have been no wage increases for several years, we have accepted the reducing or outright removal of benefits. In doing so we have already been taking the burden for the economic woes of our state and country. Yet we have come to work faithfully, serving the public just as you have, and with far less reward. But now, you ask us to sacrifice everything we have. You will be forcing people at the worst into homelessness, lives of abject poverty and breaking up of families to at best living a life devoid of anything other than work and sleep. While your choice will not take you into that abyss, it is shoving thousands of others into it. We beg you to reconsider. -- E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized state official.