What about our police officers, who could lose pay with the revocation of the Quinn Bill?
Published 00:00, June the 15th, 2009
Following the money
Gov. Deval Patrick — and lawmakers — continue to advocate for an increased use of flagmen as opposed to police details. But here is what I don’t understand: I got a copy of a standard Massachusetts Highway bidding contract, and each and every contractor factored anywhere from $50 to $53.25 an hour for a flagman. Considering that police officers, who provide a public-safety function, make $33 to $40 an hour, I fail to see the savings. Can the lawmakers help me out with that?
And there is a lot of talk about people’s paychecks being cut back and how devastating that would be to families. Well, what about the paychecks of police officers whose legislators are arguing to wipe out the Quinn Bill, which raises the pay of cops with college degrees?
Here is another thing I find confusing: Finally, hardworking lawmakers managed to close some of the pension abuses that are robbing taxpayers blind year after year. Gone are the “one day, one year” provision and the “termination allowance,” which allow politicians to make free money courtesy of taxpayers.
But consider our Transportation Secretary James Aloisi — who collected nearly $19,000 in pension monies as a former “Department of Public Utilities” worker. He also pulled in $150,000 a year as the Transportation Secretary — bringing his total salary to $179,000.
There has been no mention of current state employees who make six figures and manage to collect another $19,000 a year in pension monies trying to “tighten his belt.” In fact, Jimmy Aloisi never mentioned taking a pay cut when he proposed raising the tolls across Massachusetts or when his colleagues insisted that taxpayers would “save millions” by bringing in the flagmen.
Yeah, right. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to sell us the Tobin Bridge, too. Just a small $200-a-person bridge tax.
And in a few weeks — thanks to James Aloisi — it’s going to cost me $7 bucks to get off of the island of Eastie. He can afford it. Most of the rest of us can’t.