This is addressed to the governor's quote and the actions that he wants the state's employees unions to address.

Anyone who reads the request gets the impression that our own governor believes that if you are a state worker you don't limit your expenses and are not hard working. Pardon me governor, regardless of who we work for, all New York state residents are hard working and we all have been limiting our expenses.

If you go to work to earn a living and try to support your family, whether it's to make sure convicted thieves and murderers are kept safe from each other behind bars in the state's prisons, taking the tolls and handing out tickets for the Thruway Authority, a senior auditor for the Lottery Commission or if you're a social worker for one of the state's nursing homes for the disabled, you're a hardworking New Yorker who has been limiting your expenses.

If you go to work to earn a living and try to support your family, whether it's to work on an assembly line in one of the few remaining factories left in New York state, stock shelves at Wal-Mart, drive a school bus or have a home-based business, you're a hard-working New Yorker who has been limiting your expenses.

Your suggestion of withholding one day's pay for five weeks from certain state workers may look great on paper, but I don't think you factored in all of the hard-working families that live paycheck to paycheck, that are state employees. I noticed that you didn't mention any suggestions on how they could explain it to their mortgage company or any other bill collector that wants the money owed to them, the reason why the payment is late?

For many New York families, robbing Peter to pay Paul is a way of life. There is never any left over, even on payday. Yes dear governor, even for state workers.

Of course there is a little friction between the union members who would be affected by the deferred salary payments, and the remaining New York state residents. No one wants to lose money out of their paycheck, so of course it's upsetting and there have been some rumors that the unions won't reopen the contracts. That in turn upsets the non-union, non state employees since they see it as “unfair” and “John Q Public” gets screwed again.

Excuse me, but we are all in this together and we are all affected by high taxes and rising gas prices. So why not suggest that every New York state resident give up one day's pay. Not five days, just one day. After all, were all in this together, like it or not.

Tona Rooker

Port Byron