Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Boston Super Gets Praise Not Raise

Let me be the first one to thank her for DOING the RIGHT THING by TAXPAYERS!!!!

"Boston schools chief gets praise, no bonus" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | September 30, 2008

The Boston School Committee has given Superintendent Carol R. Johnson rave reviews for her first year on the job, but she will not receive a dime more in pay.

Citing tough economic times, the School Committee has decided not to give her a bonus, which under the terms of her five-year contract could have been as much as $20,000 for a job well done. For that same reason, Johnson has decided not to take a contractually guaranteed pay increase, which would have boosted her $275,000 annual salary by 2.5 percent or $6,875. Other senior school administrators also will not have pay increases this year. --more--"

That is AS IT SHOULD BE; isn't 275k a year enough?!!

And for those who think I am being cruel and unfair, get the $$$ someplace else:

Of course, "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shellling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."

Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?