Is NY/NJ Port Authority looting the taxpayers dollars?
What is the $4 toll to drive between New York and New Jersey really going for? The Port Authority is paying toll booth operators over 60k a year base and as much as 100k with overtime. The administrators are really raking in the bucks.
This is the same politician/government employee spoils system that plunged Greece into financial chaos.
They take your cash . . . in so many ways.
Port Authority toll collectors not only grab your money at New York-New Jersey crossings, they’re now pulling down stunning six-figure salaries funded by the levies you pay at bridges and tunnels.
Twenty-four toll collectors at the bi-state agency have made more than $80,000 so far in 2011 — payments pumped up by massive overtime. Seven of those workers took in $90,000 or more.
SOME PORT AUTHORITY EMPLOYEES GETTING 80G-PLUS FOR NOT WORKING
But that’s chump change to the top toll taker.
Warren Stevens has made $102,670 so far this year — $40,614 of it OT.
With overtime paid at time-and-a-half, Stevens averaged about 20 hours of OT per week, or about 130 extra eight-hour shifts per year, an analysis of PA data shows.
Karen DuPree is the No. 2 highest-paid toll taker, making $97,621 — more than a third of it from overtime pay of $37,470.
The annual salaries will only swell since the figures released Friday for all 6,777 PA employees do not include December paychecks.
Princesella Smith, 51, who has made $89,599 working the toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge this year, understandably loves her profession.
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Port Authority gardeners are raking in big bucks, too. At least 11 of them bring in annual salaries of more than $80,000.
Michael Finlator has earned $94,106 in 2011 as a gardener. More than $24,000 of that comes from overtime.
Fernando Ippolito, a blacksmith, took in more than $146,000.
Louis LaCapra, the PA’s chief administrative officer, made the most of any agency employee, bringing in $324,940 so far.
Kevin Cottrell, the agency’s top paid cop, made $265,059 in 2011.