"Curbing ‘hack holidays’ to cost more than $1m" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff / February 17, 2011
The law, rather than ending a generous benefit, will cost taxpayers more than $1 million this year....
See what I mean? Even when they have the best intentions.... who wrote the law?
The reason: while the law says government offices must open on the holidays, the cities and towns are forced either to give those workers double-time on the holidays, or two paid days off later.
“This is just the last straw that makes it even more difficult to manage in the public sector,’’ said Samuel R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-backed budget watchdog group.
But union officials defend the perk.
“I saw it as benefit to make up for the low-paid wages and salaries that folks in my chapter in City Hall were saddled with,’’ said Bruce T. Boccardy, president of Service Employees International Union Local 888, which represents 2,000 municipal employees in Boston. “It was a nice little benefit. The city offered it, and we obviously accepted it. Anybody would accept it. It was common sense.’’
Boston will have to pay $1.53 million this year to keep the doors of its offices open on the holidays, said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
In Revere, city officials are bracing for thousands of dollars in additional costs, just to pay one person per department to work in City Hall on the holidays, said Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino.
“It’s just one additional aggravation on top of the many others we have to deal with,’’ he said.
Jay Gonzalez, Patrick’s budget chief, said the law was not designed as a cost-cutting measure, but to ensure that government offices in Suffolk County would be open to the public on the same days that other government offices are open.
“There is a public perception around the unfairness that government employees in a particular part of the state have paid days off when other people don’t,’’ Gonzalez said. “Symbolically, you can’t justify it.’’
He expressed hope that the law will help local and state officials eliminate the holidays from union contracts.
“Right now, it is not a money-saver but over time, to the extent we, in future contract negotiations, can take these holidays out, it could be,’’ Gonzalez said.
What could you do with a million dollars?
How many teaching jobs could we save?
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray agreed, saying in a joint statement yesterday that the Legislature could not eliminate the holidays from union contracts, but “as existing contracts expire, the state will save money.’’
The holidays have proven extraordinarily resilient, withstanding years of public scorn.
Because of the campaign kickbacks, that's why.
First approved as Suffolk County holidays by Governor Leverett A. Saltonstall in 1941, Evacuation Day, on March 17, commemorates the date in 1776 when British troops ended their occupation of Boston.
So WHEN is AmeriKa going to END ITS?
Bunker Hill Day, on June 17, marks the bloody Revolutionary War battle near Charlestown.
Supporters in the Legislature have long defended the holidays as cherished reminders of the region’s rich history.
I no longer cherish wars as reminders; however, people fighting for freedom?
Yeah. Only problem is AmeriKa is now the empire and the people we are slaughtering, sacrificing, and subjugating is (sic) us.
But critics have derided them as examples of government excess in an era when many private sector workers have been laid off or seen their wages and benefits slashed....
Rather than PIT US against EACH OTHER, I'd like to see the WAR LOOT COME HOME and the BANKERS GIVE BACK the $12 TRILLION they used to repay the mortgage security and other frauds.
Hello?
--more--"
Globe Editorial The state chops ‘hack’ holidays — and ends up paying for it
"Despite law change, ‘hack holiday’ endures" by Peter Schworm and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff / March 18, 2011
Like a St. Patrick’s Day pubgoer at last call, Evacuation Day isn’t quite ready to exit the holiday scene.
While city and state agencies were open for business during yesterday’s Irish-flavored festivities, many for the first time in memory, the belittled holiday still exacted a hefty price.
At the state level, unionized employees who worked will simply receive an alternative paid day off some time within the next two months. In Boston, city officials estimated that staffing the holiday cost taxpayers roughly $750,000. In Revere, a skeleton crew at City Hall pulled in 2 1/2 times their regular pay for the day’s work.
Doing away with the entrenched holiday once and for all, it seems, is as tough as driving British troops out of Boston....
Or Israelis from Palestine, for that matter.
Wait a minute; didn't we run the British out in a few years?
The public sector perk, recently a focus of irritation over government waste and entitlement, lives on in union contracts, and many state and city employees who worked yesterday received either a comp day (hello long weekend) or extra pay....
Also see: The Wisconsin Wedge
I was getting that feeling from the agenda-pushing paper, weren't you?
“It is what it is’’
"N.H. scribe’s vile Plan B" by Kevin Cullen, Globe Columnist / March 22, 2011
Many teach journalism. Others tend bar, write books, tutor kids, and I know a guy who gives guitar lessons.
