Related: Turnpike Toll Hikes Going for Manager Bonuses
State Police Sidelined
"Turnpike lays off 20 toll collectors; Severance pay will cut into savings" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | December 12, 2008
Layoff notices have been sent to 20 toll collectors at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, as the beleaguered agency began an effort to reduce its ranks by 100. But the agency may not save much money in the first year, because of a generous contract that will give laid-off workers six months of health benefits and compensation for four times their accrued vacation days....
This first round of layoffs was voluntary, executive director Alan LeBovidge said. The 20 toll collectors had base salaries of roughly $53,000. Including benefits, each layoff will save the Turnpike $65,000 to $70,000 for a total of $1.4 million. But that savings projection will be reduced once the authority calculates how much it will cost to pay the workers their contractually required severance benefits. Each worker has accrued between 32 and 116 vacation days, meaning that some will get more than one year's pay....
LeBovidge said during the meeting that the authority was attempting to renegotiate terms of a complex financial deal with the banking giant UBS. Known as a swaption, the arrangement could force the authority to pay out a $450 million lump sum under certain market conditions.
Yup, it ALWAYS comes back to BANKS!!!!
The Legislature agreed in July to extend some of the state's credit to the Turnpike Authority to avoid the potential lump sum payment. The authority is trying to get UBS to accept the Legislature as a replacement insurer.
What, taxpayer-insured isn't good enough for 'em after we gave them trillions in loot?
--more--"
Ah, who cares when "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 shelling 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?
Nor is it RECKLESS to BORROW the STATE INTO OBLIVION so they can PAY INTEREST to BANKS while SITTING ON $2 BILLION DOLLARS!
Need one final insult, Mass. taxpayers?
"Town officials... are trying to decide how much of a property tax break to offer and how they can secure state funding for infrastructure improvements.... although it could take several years for the studio to realize its potential"
Also see: Hollywood, Massachusetts
Hollywood (East) Disses Veterans
More Mass. $$$ to Movie Makers
Sorry, that wasn't it:
"$5m in tax breaks going to IBM for Littleton project
The Massachusetts Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved $5 million in state and local tax breaks for IBM Corp., which recently began a $63 million expansion in Littleton. IBM vice president Bob McDonald said the company plans to create 42 jobs at the site over the next decade. McDonald said the computer giant, based in Armonk, N.Y., has already begun renovating a building and hopes to move into it next month. McDonald said the tax incentives were important, but the company would have gone forward with the expansion without them. IBM has 4,000 employees in Massachusetts, including about 2,000 in Littleton (Boston Globe October 30 2008)."
Yup, but TOLLS and TAXES need to GO UP!
