Is Boston a municipal version of Greece?

Does the City of Boston allocate too much money to personnel?

  • Yes, there is no justification for such high salaries

    Votes: 3 60.0%

  • No, city employees are paid commensurate with their value

    Votes: 2 40.0%
  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .
S

sidewalks

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http://www.boston.com/yourtown/boston/boston_searchable_salaries/

The city of Boston pays more than 3,800 individuals in excess of $100,000. The median HOUSEHOLD income in the city of Boston is $39,000 and the median household income in the metro area is $69,000.

A lot could be done with that money if that largesse were directed elsewhere. The parks department has a pitifully small budget of just $15mm and the city is indiferently maintained/cleaned.

I meant the title to be provocative as (currently) Boston has a strong credit rating, though such a rating could be as fleeting as that of Greece.

I've written this post to gauge opinions of the board and see if others are as bothered by this situation as I am. Does it strike you as problematic from a long term perspective and also regarding the current allocation of limited resources?
 
My hometown, Saugus, is pretty much a financial black hole. Multiple officials making 100k+ salaries, with some teachers even at or pushing 100k. The cops are all making over 100k and most of the firefighters are too. Despite the serious taxes Rt 1 must rake in, there's always some catastrophe at hand and there's no money for sports, or band, or tech ed class, or the senior center, or whatever. It's pretty insane. But as far as cops go, there is a shortage, and the overtime is driving their salaries. With teachers, the union seems to have the town by the balls, and they get all in a hissy fit over everything. Don't want to upset the union, god forbid. And then property taxes go up the maximum allowed every year, if not more. What a shithole, really. I'm convinced there's a massive corruption scheme in that town... MASSIVE.

So I don't know about Boston's financials though. Are there enough cops? Or are they running up costly overtime?
 
Overtime should not be a chronic problem. If the police are doubling their salaries (which many do) by working overtime in any given year, then the rational thing would be to hire more officers. But the unions don't want to give up overtime.

I find it absurd that so many city employees rake in that kind of money. Incidentally, the city councilors make $80k per year. How does that make sense? The city payroll is basically a taxpayer funded jobs program. When I go to NYC or Chicago, or even Cambridge for that matter, I can SEE tax dollars being utilized. The streets are well maintained, flower beds are pristine, new parks are invested in with a sense of civic pride and old ones are maintained.

You may wonder why I reference Cambridge...as an example, walk through their public housing complexes some time. They are astonishingly well maintained and are markedly better than their counterparts in Boston. Similarly, the parks are beautifully kept.

(I'd love to know if any sociological/crimonology studies have been done comparing crime rates and social behaviors in Cambridge vs. Boston public housing...kind of an obvious 'broken windows' comparison.)
 
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