Here we go again! Gov. Mike Easley is again attempting to degrade state employees with a measly 1.5 percent pay raise, while the proposed pay raise for teachers is 7 percent.

Granted, we do need good, qualified teachers, but we also need good, qualified rank and file employees. We are the backbone of the state. Who will run the universities, school systems, jails, mental health facilities, etc., without us? The teachers?

Does Easley not realize how much gas and food cost?

I, along with thousands of other state employees (teachers excluded), are grateful that he will not be our governor again -- at least for the next four years.

Marie Blanchard

Apex

(The writer works in the Office of Technology Transfer at N.C. State University.)

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