ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, January 12, 1997               TAG: 9701130015
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 

LETTER

Article insults state employees

In The Roanoke Times article, "No big raises for professors" [Dec. 21, Virginia section), Allison Blake writes, "The original idea behind lag pay was to shift paychecks [for state employees] so workers are paid after work is completed, rather than before, to save $75 million this year." This is not the first time this has been stated in The Roanoke Times - similar sentences have appeared in other articles dealing with lag pay.

I have been an employee of the commonwealth for 24 years. In all that time, I have never been paid prior to completing my work. If there are state workers who receive their salary checks before the work is completed, where and who are they? Perhaps there's a story here for an investigative reporter.

The $75 million will be saved because the governor's plan will shift our paydays so that we receive one less paycheck in 1997. The assurance that it will all even out in the end (i.e., when we retire) is not satisfactory to me or to my colleagues. The promulgation of the fallacy that we are paid before we provide the service is an insult to all state employees. I hope such an unqualified statement as the one quoted above will cease to appear in my favorite local paper.

Marilyn L. Norstedt

Blacksburg

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