Just came across this in the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER:
Barry Saunders, Staff Writer
Receiving a letter from the tax man is like getting one from your first ex-wife's attorney: you know before you open the darned thing that it's not going to contain anything good.That's why I have my vehicle tax bill sitting right here beside me, unopened for two weeks.
Oh well, might as well open it now. Here goes nothing.
Nope. Here goes everything. YIKES! Halloween is still three weeks away, but I've already gotten my fright. There is no way my old plunker is worth that much. The only thing that makes the higher taxes we Durham residents will pay palatable is knowing that some of the money is going to pay cops who deserve more than they are getting and who are now demanding more.
Beverly Thompson, a spokeswoman in the mayor's office, told me "The City Council has allotted money to bring all city employees' salaries up to 'market rate.'" On average, she said, that'll come to $4,400 more for police officers. Under the Council's plan, they'd get half this year and half next.
The officers, understandably, want all of their moolah now and they want a solution to what Thompson cited as "compression problems." Because of the pay scale, some veteran officers could see their salaries compressed and eventually surpassed by new officers the city has recruited.
They think that is fundamentally unfair, and they're right.
Durham is the best place to live in the Triangle but the one place you wouldn't want to be a cop. You don't have to be a Teddy Kennedy liberal to acknowledge that poverty rates adversely affect the crime rate and make being a lawman here that much tougher. And that much more important. Durham's rate is double Raleigh's, for instance.
I don't know about you, but I want happy cops who aren't spending their spare time scanning the want ads to see which departments are paying more than Durham.
Alas, no citizen can pay enough taxes to give cops what they really deserve. That's why the business community should join in the effort to help the dollars they do make go further. For instance, there used to be a television station in Durham on which Realtors advertised houses for sale. That was, of course, back when some people could actually afford to buy houses. One Realtor famously advertised lower interest rates for cops, firefighters and teachers. There used to be apartment complexes that offered them deals on rentals, too. Not only is that good business -- having a cruiser in the parking lot or an off-duty cop in the laundry room would be a deterrent to bad guys -- but it would also show prospective officers how much this community values our department. There is nobody I'd want living next door to me more than a cop who drives his cruiser home or mows his lawn while wearing his or her uniform.
OK, maybe a 35-year-old cutie who doesn't care about looks, but hey, how likely are you to find one of those? Even if you find one, she won't be much good if someone tries to break into your house.