To the Editor,
With all of the hullabaloo recently about judges and senior administrators in the state’s judiciary and other state agencies giving themselves $3,000 “retention” …
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To the Editor,
With all of the hullabaloo recently about judges and senior administrators in the state’s judiciary and other state agencies giving themselves $3,000 “retention” bonuses, an important question isn’t being asked. Among all of these bigwigs, who is the state leader who has actually acted to protect taxpayers?
Even though he has borne the brunt of criticism about the so-called retention bonuses, Governor Dan McKee is actually the only state leader who has acted professionally and in the interests of taxpayers.
McKee negotiated the $3,000 “vaccination” bonuses as part of the union agreement in which the bonuses were in lieu of greater wage increase percentages. The union agreed to a 2.5% wage increase during a period of raging inflation that reached around 6% for the year the bonuses were negotiated. The $3,000 bonuses sealed the deal. Isn’t it better for taxpayers to mete out one-time payments of $3,000 per employee than have to bear the cost of 6% pay increases that would go on forever?
Equally important, while other state leaders in the judiciary, treasury, and elsewhere opted to hand out these so-called “retention” bonuses to non-union employees, including life-tenure judges, McKee chose to limit the bonuses to union employees in the executive branch-as agreed upon in the contract.
I’ve negotiated many public service union contracts. Paying one-time bonuses, even when mischaracterized, to avoid forever wage increases is a very smart negotiating tactic.
While the likes of Chief Justice Paul Suttell and General Treasurer Seth Magaziner doled out taxpayer money unjustly, Governor McKee acted to protect the taxpayers.
Lonnie Barham
Warwick
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