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Letter: Time to end defined pensions for public workers

Galen Rosenberg's op-ed last week expresses a sense of public employee entitlement to generous salaries, job security and especially defined benefit pensions.

This attitude that some, though certainly not all, public workers have come to have is difficult for private sector workers to comprehend, especially when so many are losing their jobs or have insecure jobs. There is a growing divergence between private sector and public sector compensation and benefits that some are saying could lead to taxpayer revolt.

This "revolt" is taking a mild form in Menlo Park with the reasonable proposal for new city employees to have 401(k) plans much like the private sector. The government employee unions may object, but hopefully the voters will understand that entitlements for government employees are a thing of the past.

William Murray

Sheridan Avenue, Palo Alto