Since I’ve given up on the Mets I need to talk about something else today so here goes.

An issue that seems to bother many people, and I think deservedly so,  deals with large payouts to those retiring from certain state and government jobs. Those payouts are usually for unused sick and vacation time that may have been accumulated during a long career in education, law enforcement and others which are paid for by tax dollars.

As someone who works in the private sector I will admit I’m a bit envious because for most of my 36 working years the sick, personal and vacation time I’ve earned had to be used in a calendar year and does not accumulate. It’s use it or lose it. I would imagine most of you have similar situations and for the most part sick time is to be used when you are indeed sick and not something you build up and get paid for at the end.

In some cases the issue of vacation time might be a bit different because someone’s position might not allow then to use the time they’ve earned and are entitled to. That is understandable and I think most of us are okay with that although again we are likely bothered when someone walks away with hundreds of thousands of dollars upon their retirement because they did not use most of the vacation time they had coming to them.

The problem is that often we are talking about positions in which nobody actually replaces someone who is out sick or on vacation. The job just gets absorbed by others. It’s a bit different in the case of say a teacher who is replaced by a substitute who of course is paid and honestly we don’t want teachers out of the classroom on a regular basis.

Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley take the stage for a presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley take the stage for a presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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Again, I think the problem is that sick time should be used for that and just because you come to work when you’re supposed to doesn’t mean you should be entitled to a big payoff especially when you consider the value of a day’s pay at the end of a career is much greater then when someone started out. Bottom line is there should be some cap on what someone gets in the form of sick and vacation pay and it seems we are moving in that direction on a state and national basis.

One other thing and I’ll make it brief. I watched the first Democratic debate last night between innings of the Mets game and my take was that Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb are in another world, Martin O’Malley would be happy as Vice President, Bernie Sanders is interesting but unelectable and Hillary Clinton knows she has the nomination locked up.

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