Another three weeks of driving this damn bus and I'm going to be able to pay for that boob job!
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 ...
WHAT??????
There is a reason why unions=mafia=libs.
Taxpayers are incredibly generous employers.
hey I’ll drive the bus for 90K!
The tax payers are fools for the government...
Government will eventually choke America off.
Has the White House made them special consultants on Obamacare yet?
It’s hard to believe that once upon a time, urban mass transit was the job of private companies who had to bid for the work.
I don’t know the story but I heard it has to do with laws in the sixties that were designed to drive out the private bus companies.
Woahh!!! ping
That’s MUCH more than a pediatrician makes BEFORE Obamacare.
Tough s**t, Madison, you liberal bastion. Reap it; savor it; digest it; love it.
I love watching libs express shock at the fruits of their “labors”. A**holes.
Wow! Ralph Kramden could have afforded that string of Poloponies.
Hey..just think what they will get in retirement. Probably the overtime is included in the calculation.
Another three weeks of driving this damn bus and I'm going to be able to pay for that boob job!
Ah, but the real rub is not that they earned $150k+. That’s pretty much a 1 year hit. No doubt what they are doing is getting that “high 3” average up, up, up so as to increase retirement benefits significantly — and that is very, very costly to states. It’s a good portion of the reason California is in such financial straits. I’m not sure exactly how the WI public system works, but for most states it’s based on a certain percent (usually around 2%) times the years of service times that all important “high 3 average.”
Where do I sign up???????????????
When I I tell people these tax parasite government employees get lottery style retirement pensions, and top shelf benefits, I'm not joking.
The consequence of a snooping tax system...combined with union skulduggery....impoverishes those whom gov’mt is supposed to serve....
how did tax snoops get into this mess?
I can’t believe that a city the size of Madison could run a mass-transit system in any state but a loss without fares so high as to make auto ownership less expensive than using mass transit. Even before laughable situations like $100K+ bus drivers. But mass transit is yet another liberal mantra, like a college degree for everybody and state-run healthcare - that yields to no rational analysis.
From what I know of Madison, the residents probably don’t see this as a problem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.