A Toll Worker Earning $322,000

A Toll Worker Earning $322,000 & More Mindblowing Government Waste in New Jersey

Guy Benson
Townhall.com
Oct. 20, 2010

Behold -- Your worst fears about government waste, fraud, and abuse, confirmed:

Auditors say the New Jersey Turnpike Authority wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses. In one case, an employee with a base salary of $73,469 earned $321,985 when all payouts and bonuses were included.

The audit says that toll dollars From the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were spent on items ranging from an employee bowling league to employee bonuses for working on birthdays and holidays.

It took place as tolls were being increased.

The biggest expense uncovered in the audit was $30 million in unjustified bonuses to employees and management in 2008 and 2009 without consideration of performance.

One example was paying employees overtime for removing snow and working holidays and then giving additional "snow removal bonuses" and "holiday bonuses."

But remember, folks, Democrats routinely inform us that greedy corporations are ruining the American economy, and that the US Chamber of Commerce poses a grave threat to the Republic. Show of hands, private sector employees, how many of you receive extra compensation for working on your birthday? Anyone?

There's even more good news on the way for New Jersey taxpayers:

Comptroller Matt Boxer says tolls are set for another increase in 2012.

"While tolls are going up, the Turnpike Authority is overpaying its employees, overpaying its management, overpaying for its health plan and overpaying for legal services," Boxer said in a statement.

No wonder the public sector unions have been fighting tooth and nail against virtually every reform effort Gov. Chris Christie has proposed. If you were receiving double bonuses for snow removal, wouldn't you?

UPDATE: A reader reminds me that when New Jersey's two major toll roads were built in the 1950's, politicians pledged that tolls would be totally phased out once the state had collected sufficient funds to pay the original construction bills. Needless to say, that never happened. I couldn't find independent online confirmation of the reader's recollection, so I called the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to see if they knew the definitive history. I'm, ahem, waiting for a call back. If I ever get one, that worker might be entitled to a $30,000 bonus just for placing the call.

Say WHAT?!?! A base salary of $73,469!!!! For sitting on one's ass and collecting tolls?!?! How is that salary even remotely justified???

dblboggie wrote:
Say WHAT?!?! A base salary of $73,469!!!! For sitting on one's ass and collecting tolls?!?! How is that salary even remotely justified???

Wanna hear another one? The City of Minneapolis bus drivers make $24.19 hr.
5 weeks of vacation
80 hours sick pay a year
Health insurance at NO CHARGE!

Where do I sign up to get a job like that????? Oh yeahhhhhhhhh. Join the... ahem, cough.... union.

There really are no words. It is abhorrent, criminal even. It is a naked theft of hard-earned taxpayer money. This is a practice that must be stamped out with a vengeance. I wouldn't accept a job like that just on pure principle. I'd rather live on the street and eat out of trash cans than be this kind of parasite on the backs of the hard working members of the private sector.

dblboggie wrote:There really are no words. It is abhorrent, criminal even. It is a naked theft of hard-earned taxpayer money. This is a practice that must be stamped out with a vengeance. I wouldn't accept a job like that just on pure principle. I'd rather live on the street and eat out of trash cans than be this kind of parasite on the backs of the hard working members of the private sector.

It's insane, those wages. I used to drive truck and the best i made was equivalent to about $15.50 an hour and that was being paid by the load. But when you considered the money i made for the day versus the hours i worked, that's what it came out to approximately.

Oh yeahhhhhh. Then we have this here:

Bus drivers get months off - paid -- for spitting incidents
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/load_of_bull_spit_K82GyAVAsN8qitzDlOMueO

Unreal.

Insanity doesn't even scratch the surface here... this is just out and out criminal. This is theft. And it is all thanks to unions. I'm sorry, but it this is things like this that make me such a vehement anti-union person. There is nothing, in my mind, that could possibly justify the presence of unions in this day and age. Yes, they had their valid role at the turn of the 20th century, but any justification for their existence was pretty much eliminated by the time that century hit the half-way mark... now they are just criminal enterprises funding a leftist agenda that attacks free-market capitalism at the great detriment of society as a whole.

People complain about corporate "theft" but never rail on about this shit.

TexasBlue wrote:People complain about corporate "theft" but never rail on about this shit.

Exactly! The hypocrisy is just breathtaking. Nor do they rail against government "theft" in form of taxes or the outrageous wages and benefits of government workers. And the truly outrageous part of this is that the private sector must provide some good or service that the people deem worthy of spending their hard-earned dollars on because private sector companies cannot force, by gun point, any citizen to purchase their wares... but the government has at their disposal the use of deadly force to FORCE the purchase of their worthless services. That more people don't see this is truly depressing. Just look at my siggy below... that says it all.