Wanna get rich? Work at Metra

July 10, 2010 by CookReformer
Filed under: Reform, Spending

Budget crunch? What budget crunch?

Economic crisis? What economic downturn?

It might be easy to see how many state and local government employees might be blind to the challenges facing most taxpayers in this down economy.

Earlier this week, we learned that Governor Quinn has been handing out hefty raises to members of his staff.

Todd Stroger has been on a hiring (and contract-giving) spree to his friends.

And, now the Sun-Times uncovers an apparent taxpayer-funded cash cow at Metra (and here we thought transportation was underfunded)….

Metra paid 151 employees more than $100,000 each last year, excluding health-care costs and Metra-funded retirement contributions. Of the commuter rail agency’s 40 top-paid workers, 15 belonged to labor unions. Philip Pagano, who was Metra’s executive director until taking his own life in the face of an internal Metra investigation, allowed several nonunion employees to trade sick days and vacation time for cash payments. Those buyout payments no longer are allowed.

Click here to see the full list of these employees.

Hmmmm…..

We thought the RTA was in nearing a “crisis point” on state funding (according to this February 2010 story).

And, didn’t the General Assembly just pass a sales tax hike specifically to bail out the RTA?

Apparently your money just went to pad the salaries of the nouveau rich who work at the government agency.