From a letter to Newsday: "Your story, "$9B deficit crisis" [News, Dec. 27] fails to mention that state retirees pay no state income tax on their pensions…As a private-sector worker, this is patently offensive to me. Why isn't everyone paying their fair share?"

It is patently offensive to me too. But as a current worker who does not wish to be cheating younger people when (if) I'm able to retire, I'm also offended that private sector retirement income is exempt from state and local income taxes up to $20,000, and Social Security income is exempt for all. Why should a retired couple with $80,000 in retirement and Social Security income pay no state and local income tax, while a family of four struggling with $50,000 in wage income pays at a high rate?

I was stunned to read on this website that millions of dollars was diverted from the MTA 15 years ago to bail out Nassau County, which is now being forced by a court decision to pay money back. Every party to that deal, everyone involved with it, did something very, very wrong. It is outrageous — an hidden debt from the point of view of Nassau County residents, a theft of funds from the point of view of the MTA. This should be investigated. How many other off the books debts like this are they? And if this is the common practice, should we be surprised that the state legislature and Comptroller are borrowing money from the pension funds?

Now that the New York Times is publishing more articles on the public employee pension disaster, I've noticed a pattern in the extensive comments. They are from all over the country. Some talk about the massive amounts public employees have contributed to their own pensions. Or how the government, which is to say taxpayers, failed to contribute their share, and taxes are not that high. Or how retired public employees would face destitution if their pensions were not paid, because they were not included in Social Security saving those taxpayers 6.2% of their wages. And all the state and local taxes pensioners have to pay. Everywhere in the U.S., public employees, who already had the richest retirement benefits, cut political deals over the past 15 years to get even richer pensions beyond what they were promised when hired, just as the top executives who already earned the most pay cut office political deals to grab even more. But many of the comments asserting that public employees have been robbed as well are true in many other places, the places the comments are coming from.

But not in New York City.  I ask that the reporting reflect those differences, and stop asserting that attempts to solve the problem solely at the expense of younger generations is an "of course" rather than yet more robbing the cradle. The national story is Generation Greed, and pensions are just one aspect.