LETTER: Nevada public safety workers deserve their pensions
In your March 12 editorial on the retirement of the Las Vegas fire chief and deputy chief, you reflected on the fact that the contribution to the Nevada Public Employees Retirement System for public safety workers is at 44 percent. You failed to mention that 50 percent of that contribution comes from employee paychecks.
I hired on to the North Las Vegas Fire Department in 1969. At the time, they needed three new hires to fill slots for a new station. The pay back then was $608 per month, about one-third of what I could have made as a dealer on the Strip.
I was hired on the first test and the remaining applicants on the third test. No one wanted the job in those days, so the state public employee retirement system offered good contractual benefits, some of which were stolen by the Legislature in 2012.
Over the years, I have lost many of my fellow firefighters to cancer, heart attacks and injury due to the inherent risk of the job. As the writer of the editorial sat at his desk, paying his 6.5 percent into Social Security (I’ve been denied mine), I sit here having had two left knee replacments and severe pain in my left hip due to an on-the-job injury.
Yes, I have a great retirement after 35 years of public service. But believe me, I paid for it.
