Hey Ralphie boy! You're reeling in the big buckarinos!
Posted on 02/08/2010 7:21:34 PM PST by smartyaz
Madison's highest paid city government employee last year wasn't the mayor. It wasn't the police chief. It wasn't even the head of Metro Transit.
It was bus driver John E. Nelson.
Nelson earned $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other pay.
He and his colleague, driver Greg Tatman, who earned $125,598, were among the city's top 20 earners for 2009, city records show.
They're among the seven bus drivers who made more than $100,000 last year thanks to a union contract that lets the most senior drivers who have the highest base salaries get first crack at overtime.
And there was a lot of overtime — $1.94 million last year, $467,200 more than the bus system budgeted for and the most ever for the system — as employees exhausted sick leave and took advantage of unpaid leave through the federal Family Medical Leave Act, officials said.
"That's the (drivers') contract," said Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson. "(But) I think we want more information to the TPC and a discussion of all the facts."
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
It doesn't have to make sense, as long as it's part of a good rant.
Typical gov’t employee scam. I bet the driver is in his last three years of work before retirement. What the drivers/cops/firefighters, etc do is collude to get those close to retiring as much overtime as they can. Since their retirement is calculated on the last three years they work, they can bump up their retirement pay to above what they earned in all but their last three years of employment. Legal but totally unethical. These guys game the system and retire with huge pensions. Public service my ass, this is stealing from the taxpayer.
Damn, I worked several years with 450+ College hours for a triple major and a doctorate and I make 52K/year. I should have been a Union mafia bus driver...
Madistain has something in common with Kalifornia BART...
BART paid 145 train operators and station agents more than $20,000 apiece in overtime last year, and one of those employees earned more in overtime than his normal base pay, a Chronicle salary analysis found.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/25/MNRF19D299.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle
August 25, 2009
are freakin kidding me? oh I get it now the stimulus money
The sad thing is that society is getting close to the tipping point by these immoral a**ho**s. The collapse won’t be pretty and they will wail the loudest. You who are taking advantage of the “system” (i.e., your fellow citizens) deserve no quarter. have you no shame?
I’m glad the man we coded the other night had a nurses earning a pittance compared to these so important drivers...
Obscene. Normally you have to be a 22 year old gofer at AIG or Goldman Sachs to make that kind of money.
Stationed in Berlin one of my 'extra duties' was to learn to drive a 53-passenger (city size) bus. Two weeks training on the streets of Berlin with the Vince Lombardi of bus training instructors and we were let loose on our own to drive one of those things whenever the commander wanted one for some reason. And we're not talking plush tour bus. We're talking an army green thing with plastic seats.
One time I had to drive to Munich to pick-up some folks coming off deployment. They got on the bus carrying several cases of beer and wine and drank from Munich to Berlin. And this guy is whining about "uncivil riders".
In other words IT AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!!
yes it is and at this time all overtime should be out...wonder how much per hour he gets for overtime...state of texas put freezes on overtime when their budget was short. well for the regular workers anyway. they also froze raised during recessions.
“
What???
“
Believe it.
I was the ONLY passenger on a bus during Easter Holiday in Minneapolis/St. Paul
about a decade ago.
The driver was supremely bored (the place really did shut down on
Easter Sunday)...and told me how hard he’d worked with overtime and
all...and barely cleared $100,000 during the previous year.
Some bus drivers in major metropolitan areas just about earn that
salary for dealing with wacko passengers...and moronic drivers that
seem bent on hitting/impeding a bus.
Government will eventually choke America off.
Just like everything else....... only if we let it!
This is the game for ALL public employees. In NY State, the young State Troopers give all the overtime to the old guys, whose pension is based on the last 2-3 years of earnings. Max out your overtime in the last 2 years, and you are looking at a $125k+ per year pension.
Then its off to Florida where the taxes are lower!
How much overtime can they work? Doesn’t the CDL limit the number of hours you can drive per day/week for safety reasons?
Unionized City Bus Driver-$159,000
50 Passenger Regional Jet Captain-$28,000
Obamanomics at work.
Hey Ralphie boy! You're reeling in the big buckarinos!
Everyone knows about their little tax parasite games...And understand this is beating the tax payers like a drum... In the end, they'll be paying the state troopers down there 8 bucks an hour and their pensions will consist of dinner, 2 movie tickets, and a new watch.
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“old guys,”
And don’t forget, in public-employeespeak, an “old guy” is age 50/s;)
“Obscene. Normally you have to be a 22 year old gofer at AIG or Goldman Sachs to make that kind of money.”
Naw. The gofers get better than that in their annual bonuses.
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