BOSTON (AP) - The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority has paid out $82 million dollars in overtime pay to employees in 2020.
Fifty employees managed to double or triple their base pay with overtime, 35 workers managed to earn over $100,000 in overtime, and dozens of employees are on track to pad their salaries with six-figure payouts again in 2021, the Boston Herald reported.
In addition, 93 employees earned more than Gov. Charlie Baker through combined salary and overtime pay.
MBTA ridership has plummeted to 8% of pre-pandemic levels and officials project a budget gap of $54 million to $79 million for the current fiscal year. The next fiscal year, which starts in July, has a projected budget gap of $577 million to $652 million.
Meanwhile, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak took a $20,800 bonus on top of his $324,522 salary, according to payroll records.
Transportation advocate Christopher Dempsey of Transportation for Massachusetts called the budget woes a “manufactured crisis.” The MBTA is in line to receive $1.1 billion in federal stimulus funds, money that has not been factored into the budget gap.
“They are saving it for a future rainy day. We say this is the rainy day,” Dempsey said.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told the Herald that overtime costs were necessary to keep the system running in an unprecedented year.
Overtime spending peaked in 2019 at $96.2 million, the 2020 figure is on par with the 2018 figure of $81.9 million.
Charlie Chieppo of the Pioneer Institute said that the out-of-control overtime shows “a lack of basic respect for taxpayers” from an agency that has been plagued by spending scandals.
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