DuPree Releases Statement on State Employees and PERS

Statement

Following Governor Haley Barbour's announcement that he would appoint a commission to study the retirement system for all state employees, the DuPree for Governor Campaign has released the following statements.

"As Governor, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the Public Employees Retirement System remains unchanged for all current enrollees. We have made a commitment to our current state employees and state retirees, and we should honor that commitment in full," Mayor Johnny DuPree said. "Mississippi has one of the best public retirement systems, which is an effective tool when trying to recruit the best and the brightest people to work for our state."

As Mayor of Hattiesburg for 10 years, Johnny DuPree has led the city through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the economic recession. During these times, he has never furloughed city employees, cut city services, or raised taxes. In fact, under the leadership of Mayor Johnny DuPree, the average salaries of city employees have risen, and financial incentive packages for continual education and training have been added to departments such as police and fire.

"Mayor Johnny DuPree has a proven, verifiable record of working to protect, develop, and value our state employees. He is the only candidate in this race who has said unequivocally that he will fight to protect our state employees from removal from under the state employees board, would not favor firing state employees just to balance the budget, and has developed a plan to help provide additional incentives to some of our most underpaid," Campaign Manager Sam Hall said. "The other candidates left in this race have either directly said they would consider reducing the number of state employees and thus reduce state services or have been vague at best in their commitment to the men and women who insure all Mississippians receive the services they depend on in their day-to-day lives."

"When we talk about state employees, we're not talking about just elected officials; we're talking about police officers, firemen, courthouse clerks, park employees, sanitation workers, and even mechanics. Who we're talking about are hard working Mississippians with families to care for and bills to pay, who are often tasked with thankless jobs and low pay. They should not be treated as faceless political pawns," said Mayor Johnny DuPree.

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