In the Feb. 12  Daily News (Electoral Reform Making A Comeback?), Les Leyne points out that three politicians sitting as independents (John van Dongen, Vicki Huntington and Bob Simpson) are calling for further reform of our political system.

This initiative is badly needed. One unmentioned reform that is also needed is a law that prevents persons in the public sector from obtaining average salary increases that exceed the average obtained by those in the private sector.

Private sector employers are strongly motivated to avoid excessive increases in the salaries of their employees because they know that they could be bankrupted. Politicians and bureaucrats do not have the same motivation to resist the demands of public sector unions.

This has contributed to the excessive rise in both taxes and public debt that we have endured in recent years. If the average salary increase for public sector workers was restricted to the average obtained by those in the private sector, we would go far towards achieving the needed (and missing) control of rate increases in taxes and public debt.

RICHARD HOLMES

Kamloops