In the Oct. 18 edition of The Monitor Ms. Rita Runnels and Ms. Beverly Avila wrote to request an increase in their teacher pension. Apparently, they may be members of a group that declined to participate in Social Security and instead chose to invest in an at the time higher-paying “fixed annuity.” Their present retirement was of their own doing.
Therefore, at least for this group, here is an answer from someone with no children who has been required to pay their salaries and benefits for 22 years and yet still believes excellent teachers deserve the best Texas can afford in both.
They did not pay income taxes on the portion they invested. Annuities by their nature do not have any cost-of-living adjustments such as they would have had with Social Security, small as they have been, or a chance for higher returns as they might have had with stocks and bonds. So, their future was, put bluntly, mostly in their hands. Add to that the cost of the recent raises, bonuses and stipends needed for present teachers to just continue to do the job they signed on for, and my response has to be no!
When they succeed in influencing the current teachers, administrators and politicians to move the quality of Texas children’s education from the bottom third of the nation to the top third, please ask again.
Ned Sheats
Mission
Religious
hate decried
Crime in South Texas border cities continues to decline, or so The Monitor says. If this is true, then every Republican in the USA is a liar. Texas counties along the Rio Grande are relatively safe, state and federal crime statistics show, and they seem to be getting even safer as more law enforcement resources pour into the area.
Illegal immigrants are 47% less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. Legal immigrants were 65% less likely to commit crimes than native-born. Why does the GOP preach differently? Racial hatred!
Other than Latinos, Jews are the most hated group in the nation. Jeff Soros gives money to liberals and is accused of being Jewish. He isn’t a Jew, he is an atheist. Republicans have accused him of being a Jew because the GOP has no respect for the Jews. The MAGA crowd is anti-Jewish. Margaret Taylor Green, Donald Trump, Kanye West, the Charlottesville mob that was praised by Trump, all are anti-Jewish. Any Christian who rants against “money changers” (code word for Jews) is anti-Jewish. Evangelical preachers, Christian nationalists and White nationalists are anti-Jews. The GOP endorses the hatred of Jews by giving money and support to their politicians.
Your religion is none of my business, but if you try to put it into the laws of the USA, you become my enemy. A person who puts their own special god above our country can never be a safe politician.
Hank Shiver
Mission
Officials
attacked
I’m listening to Queen play their hit song “Another one Bites the Dust.” But this time two former city of Weslaco elected officials are now biting the dust of the prison where they will be sent after being found guilty of numerous charges!
It’s a shame when officials run to fatten their wallets and not serve their constituents who elected them. These guys made millions of dollars by getting and doling out bribes to family and other rotten tomatoes who squealed on each other to get plea deals from the government!
Ricardo Rosales
Pharr
