Benefit tweaks

Assembly Bill 560, introduced by the Ways and Means Committee and supported by Gov. Brian Sandoval, is a modest proposal that would bring state employee sick and vacation pay policies more in line with the private sector.

The legislation would reduce sick leave from 15 days a year to 12. In addition, workers with fewer than five years on the job would get 12 vacation days a year, down from 15. State employees also would need 21 years on the job to receive 21 vacation days, a perk they now enjoy after 16 years' service.

Other provisions of AB560 eliminate holiday pay -- time and a half -- for some workers and disallow new hires from purchasing service time for retirement credit.

Given the state of the Nevada economy -- and the fact that many workers in the private sector, if they're fortunate enough to still have jobs, have had to sacrifice perks and pay hikes -- these changes seem eminently reasonable.

Instead, AB560 has provided public employee union bosses with yet another opportunity to show how out of touch they are with reality -- an opportunity they seized with gusto.

In an email missive addressed to "Brothers and Sisters," Harry Schiffman and Ron Bratsch of AFSCME Local 4041, ask state workers to write to five high-ranking Democrats urging them to oppose AB560, "another attack on you and your families." The email goes on to say: "Instead of focusing on cuts to state employees, ask legislators to fight for a balanced budget that seeks new revenues and demands shared sacrifice by everyone -- not just state employees."

Mr. Schiffman and Mr. Bratsch must not get out much.

Take a look at the struggling strip malls, the boarded-up businesses. Consider the foreclosure market and the state unemployment figures -- the highest in the nation. The notion that state employees are being unfairly targeted to bear the brunt of the ongoing economic malaise is an insult to the many struggling private-sector workers barely able to make it paycheck to paycheck. They can't afford to take sick days and they've had to skip vacations to make ends meet. Meantime, they sure don't have an opportunity to "buy" credit for a taxpayer-funded, defined-benefit pension plan.

AB560 makes sense. Pass it.