You think its bad for PAT now, it's about to get A LOT WORSE! (Philadelphia: firms, paid)

[gg]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I don't know why people get so up in arms about a few highly-paid PAT drivers.

A few? That is MY tax money, they created a NEW tax to sustain themselves and now they are going to cut service and probably create another new tax or raise more taxes. Do I have a right as a taxpayer to be upset that over 50 drivers are racking in over $80K? YES!

You are welcome to write a check to help fund them. That would be good. You can pay for those drivers bringing down around $100K for driving a bus. It is typical of a tax funded company to do what they are doing. Just like the school districts, they just keep getting wild raises and hitting us up. Then there are long term costs like the fat pensions that go along with the new fat salaries. PAT bus is unsustainable because of greed. Nothing more. Drivers shouldn't be paid that much. The top end should be $65K. If it was a private company, I am not sure a driver would even make that much. Why is it as high as it is? They can strike and demand more from the seemingly limitless tax dollars. Welcome to these publicly funded companies. They get what they want, but the services are going to get scalped. We pay MORE and get much less. It needs to change. What financial condition is our state in?

State of Pennsylvania Debt Clock

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

A few? That is MY tax money, they created a NEW tax to sustain themselves and now they are going to cut service and probably create another new tax or raise more taxes. Do I have a right as a taxpayer to be upset that over 50 drivers are racking in over $80K? YES!

You are welcome to write a check to help fund them. That would be good. You can pay for those drivers bringing down around $100K for driving a bus. It is typical of a tax funded company to do what they are doing. Just like the school districts, they just keep getting wild raises and hitting us up. Then there are long term costs like the fat pensions that go along with the new fat salaries. PAT bus is unsustainable because of greed. Nothing more. Drivers shouldn't be paid that much. The top end should be $65K. If it was a private company, I am not sure a driver would even make that much. Why is it as high as it is? They can strike and demand more from the seemingly limitless tax dollars. Welcome to these publicly funded companies. They get what they want, but the services are going to get scalped. We pay MORE and get much less. It needs to change. What financial condition is our state in?

State of Pennsylvania Debt Clock

Did you read what I just wrote?

I'm 95% certain the salaries of those people on the top end are so high because of overtime premiums. There are, as I said, issues with massive overtime use, in terms of fairness to other workers, safety on the road, and potential "spiking" of pensions.

That said, overtime is overtime, and time and a half after 40 needs to be paid by law. I suppose they could get rid of double pay on Sundays and holidays, and they could define the work week more flexibly, but if it's not worth it for PAT to hire more drivers, they have to fill up X hours of overtime, whether 50 or 500 drivers take those hours. It's not going to save PAT any money at all (minus perhaps on the pension, if they haven't already changed it to stop spiking) to put a hard cap on how many hours of OT one driver can accrue.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by pman

the PAT board


if you could replace the labor leaders and/or lawyers with transportation officials from, say, the city of pittsburgh, penndot, and rotating spot or two for areas outside the city you might have a differet result. the last guy is brand new but seems like he has a reasonable background for such a position at least, same with the Oakland lady.

Perhaps what is wrong with the PAT board is that only one member has experience with running a company. Maybe if the board has more of an emphasis on prior executive experience they would be more focused on the bottom line. That being said you really do need a well rounded board. I agree that the lady from Oakland is a nice fit because of the importance of tranist to Oakland. The guy that ran the turnpike is a politician so I am not sure what he brings to the table.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Really that's no different then the personal tax money you pay redistributed out to fund things and people all over the world

Correct. But I am not the one suggesting governments should operate exclusively on a user-fee model.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

But PAT would have to pay the OT to someone anyway (If it was cheaper to hire more workers, they would have done so).

Ironically, people will complain about cash wages due to OT pay, then also complain about benefit costs, apparently not realizing there is a direct tradeoff between these two kinds of labor expenses.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Did you read what I just wrote?

Probably not. That poster has admitted in the past that he nominally responds to other people's posts without actually reading them first.

[BrianTH]

By the way, I'd be very much in favor of professionalizing PAT's Board. That said, the actual management of PAT these days seems pretty professional to me, so I don't think that would make much short term difference (long term, it couldn't hurt, and could well help).

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

By the way, I'd be very much in favor of professionalizing PAT's Board. That said, the actual management of PAT these days seems pretty professional to me, so I don't think that would make much short term difference (long term, it couldn't hurt, and could well help).

no, it's a long term fix. there are repercussions of having a poorly run board aas even competent management has to train them. as with the cutting of T stops, lots of things are political. you can blame PAT management all you want (not you personally) but without fitzgerald's support those changes would be DOA, that board isn't there to support management but to rubber stamp political desires.

[Debbie1125]

From City Paper. http://www.citypaper.net/cover_story...r-a-crash.html

Why mass transit funding matters for Center City’s real estate market | Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Good mass transit is the linchpin of that equation, as it has the capacity to carry many people into a compact area to work and play. Without it, Center City would not be as attractive a place to do any of those – or live, for that matter.
Thus it’s important that our transit systems receive adequate funding for maintenance and operations. Right now, they’re not getting it – not here, not in Pittsburgh, not anywhere, thanks to partisan gridlock in Washington and Harrisburg. And the roads aren’t faring much better, while we’re at it.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Debbie1125

From City Paper. Why SEPTA is Heading for a Crash | Philadelphia City Paper | 06/21/2012

Why mass transit funding matters for Center City’s real estate market | Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

Good mass transit is the linchpin of that equation, as it has the capacity to carry many people into a compact area to work and play. Without it, Center City would not be as attractive a place to do any of those – or live, for that matter.
Thus it’s important that our transit systems receive adequate funding for maintenance and operations. Right now, they’re not getting it – not here, not in Pittsburgh, not anywhere, thanks to partisan gridlock in Washington and Harrisburg. And the roads aren’t faring much better, while we’re at it.

Just the normal powerful unions milking the system and killing transit. Ridership is up, yet they are going broke? Why? We need to know ALL the salaries of the employees. It is our right as taxpayers. That is most likely where ALL the problems lie. Everyone wants to point fingers at, "less funding", but really it is the costs that is eating us all live. It is what it is. We made our beds by caving in over and over and look what we have now. WAY less service and way higher taxes. This is the beginning of the baby boomers ordeal. Do you really think this will get better?