Last week the Antioch Police Officers Association agreed to working under existing contract concessions until March lst, a win-win situation for sworn officers whose jobs were on the line and Antioch residents.

APOA, however, to date has not agreed to pay an employee share toward their 3% at age 50 retirement pension benefit, unlike other city employee groups whose concessions are helping keep our ship afloat.

The downturn in the economy has affected state, county and city coffers. California is especially hard hit, a direct result of punitive tax policies. Compared with the rest of the states, as of December 2010 we have the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the nation, the highest state sales tax in the nation , the highest corporate income tax west of the Mississippi except for Alaska, the 3rd worst state income tax, the 4th highest capital gains tax, the highest gasoline tax and the lowest bond ratings of any state.

APOA should note, however, that as of Monday the California Supreme Count ruled against Local 188 of the International Association of Firefighters who sued after Richmond laid off 18 firefighters during a fiscal crisis in 2003 arguing that the city didn’t bargain the need for the layoff. The ruling allows public entities to lay off workers for economic reasons but must bargain severance terms, order of layoff, effects on workload etc.

Let’s hope this doesn’t happen in Antioch. We have the highest regard for our sworn officers and deplore the fact that as of today’s date, 14 police officers in our country have lost their lives in the line of duty since January 1, 2011.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.