The chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission got a very nice Christmas gift this year; a brand new 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee. He didn’t send a thank-you card, but that’s probably because he’d have to send hundreds of thousands of them. It was paid for in full by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and by extension, every single person who pays tolls in PA.
The chairman isn’t the only one with a little extra in their stockings this year. Three other members of the commission get a company car, a no-limit expense account for vehicle maintenance and gas, and a free pass on tolls. Between Jan 1st 2007 and August 31st 2011, the commission spent $406,497 buying new cars for commissioners, $29,642 on fuel and $20,328 on maintenance. But before you go condemning the commissioners, we should at least let the acting CEO of the Commission speak.
“We ask a lot of our commissioners, who receive a salary of $26,000 to $28,500 — which has not been increased since 1988 — and a company car is fairly common in the public and private sectors,” Shuey said in a statement. “The fact is, these assigned vehicles are essential tools that allow our commissioners to effectively perform their jobs.”
Okay, so that was underwhelming. Yes, they receive a salary of only $26k, but this is a part time job, the bulk of which consists of going to meetings twice a month. Assuming their meetings last at least two hours, that’s a salary of over $500 an hour. Also, if you consider that the Grand Cherokee the chairman got was just under $40,000, his time this year is actually valued at around $1,375 an hour. Not bad for a government employee.
This is a perfect example of the corporate bloat that plagues us as an industry and as a country. Happily, this story came to light when former Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner criticized the freebies, calling them an “overly generous” perk.
“We do not believe that part-time commissioners require permanently assigned vehicles,” the auditors wrote. “Further, we found no convincing reason to allow commissioners to use commission-purchased vehicles for personal use.”
Pennsylvania is perhaps the worst offender when it comes to their Turnpike Commission. New Jersey for example has no such perks for their commissioners. In fact, according to NJTA spokesman Thomas Feeney, they receive no free cars, no free passes on tolls, no free fuel or maintenance reimbursement… and they don’t even get paid.
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Source: Associated Press via thetrucker
This is a crime in itself. The commison can hand cars out like candy yet scream they are broke and raise the tolls 3 percent for ez pass and 10 percent for cash. Also notice that for roughly every 1.03 in fuel they spent a dollar in maintance after spending all that money on new cars. seems like alot of maintance to mileage ratio………