Government Salaries Add to Newton,Mass. Budget Crunch

The Boston Globe reports:

In the six years since Newton's voters last faced a Proposition 2 1/2 override question, the city's payroll has grown by just under 24 percent and the number of employees earning salaries over $100,000 per year has increased more than five-fold, figures provided by the city show.
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Mayor David B. Cohen has asked the Board of Aldermen to place a $23.9 million override question on a citywide ballot in May, saying that rising fixed costs such as health care, energy, and pensions have eroded the city's ability to maintain existing city services and school programs.

According to figures released by Cohen's office and the city's school district, it appears that rising salaries have also contributed to Newton's fiscal burden, although both the mayor and his critics say that most salaries are determined by union contracts and that the city has done a reasonable job of keeping salary escalation under control.

In fiscal year 2001, the last full budget year before the April 2002 override vote, the city's payroll was $135.8 million, with 13 employees pulling down six-figure salaries, according to the figures from Cohen's office.

The 2002 measure, which called for an override of $11.3 million, passed by just 2.5 percent of the votes cast. Proposition 2 1/2, a state law passed in 1980, limits municipal property tax increases to 2.5 percent per year without voter approval.

For the 2007 fiscal year, which ended in July, the city spent $168.2 million on salaries, an increase of $32.4 million, or 23.9 percent.

City figures show that there are 75 Newton employees who now earn in excess of $100,000 per year, most of them in the school department.

The overall payroll increase was slightly more than the rate of inflation in the Northeast over the same six-year period, 19.5 percent, but the city also added more workers and more highly skilled employees in several key positions during that time, mayoral spokesman Jeremy Solomon said. For example, he said, the city recently hired a full-time heating, ventilation, and air conditioning specialist for the Public Buildings Department, an expenditure that will allow the city to save money by keeping repair work in house.

"Some of the salaries we are paying are being compensated by our ability not to have to contract out services," he said.

Most of the salaries paid to workers are determined through collective bargaining with various unions, such as police, firefighters, and teachers, Solomon said.

While the city tries to get "the best deal" in union negotiations, most pay raises are automatic and out of the city's control once contracts are signed, Solomon said. The city has also given nonunion employees such as department heads and school administrators raises matching those contained in the union contracts, but has done so out of necessity, he said.

"We are retaining the most qualified people," he said.

Alderman Ken Parker, who has formed a committee to explore a possible mayoral run against Cohen, said he believes the city has done a fairly good job handling salaries and contracts - with one glaring exception. The contract stalemate between the administration and the union representing Newton's firefighters, now into its fifth year, continues to be a black eye for the city, he said.

"It's about priorities," Parker said. "My feeling is that the people we ask to go into burning buildings to save the lives of our children, our parents, and ourselves shouldn't have to go five years without a raise."

With the pay increases handed out over the past six years, a six-figure salary has officially become the norm for city and school department heads.

One exception? The mayor himself.

With a yearly salary of $97,876 for the current fiscal year, Cohen is paid less than virtually all of his department heads, all of the city's high school, middle school, and elementary school principals, and the city librarian.

He makes less than half as much as the city's highest-paid employee, Jeffrey Young, whose gross yearly salary as the school district's superintendent is $207,229, and significantly less than the system's four assistant superintendents, who all earn in excess of $130,000 per year.

The principals of the city's 15 elementary schools, meanwhile, earn between $112,000 and $115,000 per year. Overall, the majority of the city's six-figure wage earners work for the school system.

In the municipal government, City Solicitor Daniel Funk is the highest wage earner at almost $119,000 per year, followed by Chief Administrative Officer Sandy Pooler at $115,000 per year.

Your tax increase is their 6 figure income.