Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Employees Cost Town Too Much !!
The Informer has learned through two anonymous sources that the annual cost of 23 full time Winchester town employees for this fiscal year, not counting overtime or reimbursement for gas and mileage allowance will be over 1.3 million dollars. That's right, their gross wages,clothing and shoe allowance,health benefits,retirement and other compensation is costing us nearly half of the town's budget. This does not include the part time employees working for the town of Winchester. How does that make you feel as you struggle to come up with this year's property tax payment or the money to put food on your table or buy fuel oil.
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32 comments:
Finding out we are the 4th high tax rate in New Hampshire. Are we racing to be number one? What possess these mental midget that run this town to think we want to be the highest in the state. Wait till we get the 3.7 million dollars sewage bail out of the users of the system, rammed down our throats. This will put us over the top. The selectmen get the atta-boy award for stupidity.
I guess we will find out how people feel in march, with over 1500 hits on your site it may be one hell of a turnout. Thanks great job.
Todays news,$7.01 goes to the town government, up 98 cents,or 16.3 percent, from last year's rate of $6.03.This will raise $1,974,254 for the town. Great place to work.
OMG! No wonder they all keep things to themselves, didn't want us all to know just how much they are paying themselves. Can you people provide us the exact amounts each one of these town employees gets in wages and exactly what benefits we are paying for? One million dollars for just 23 employees, no wonder our taxes are so high!
They needed the extra 98 cents to cover the raises and bonuses and cola they gave to everyone but poor Jim T. I guess he's not a member of the in crowd seeing he was left out.
I hope the rest of the townfolk here in Winchester wise up to how we are being used as a cash cow while we get very little in return for the money they get.
Don,t forget Henry, who is at work on time every day[ custodian ] and does a dam good job, no bonus. Guess he can,t cry loud enough. He is to busy to beg or coerce the people in power.
There are employees that work for the town who come to work on time and do their jobs as they were hired to do. With the now high cost of doing business, the bad economy, the cost of health insurance, workers comp, sick day benefits and all the other perks the town employees enjoy it is time for the town employees to step back for a moment and say, we can live without all these wage increase, buy our own shoes, make less trips for one year or two. No instead they come before the selectmen and the budget committee and want more more. Then act upset and pout like Margaret Sharra at the budget committee meeting who I give some credit to her for the fact she voiced what all the town employee are thinking, you'll get what you get and nothing more from me. The town employees are not willing give a little or to live with less for the sake of the tax payer. If they did in the future I am sure the voters would be appreciative and give the money back when the economy recovers. They have had it to easy in the past.
The past should be exactly what it is,the past. If those people that choose to continue living there should be part of it, the past. It is time for the people to finally stand up for our future as a town.This is a great town and a lot of us don't want to be forced out while the people who run and work the town just sit back and watch. I for one am tiered of being the oxen being whipped by our town government.
Looking through the list of municipalities here in New Hampshire on the Department of Revenue's web site, it's easy to see which towns have problems with bloated government spending. Swanzey, our nearest neighbor has a $4.17 rate for town tax, Hinsdale $5.14, Fitzwilliam $4.43, even Marlborough is only $3.84, all reasonable rates showing they are run in a fiscally responsible way; unlike Winchester where we have bloated salaries and too many high cost benefits swelling our town tax to nearly twice the rate of our neighboring towns, it is unacceptable. Last year's town budget shows we paid out $3,000,997.54 in expenditures, which included all town employee salaries and benefits, including even the part timers. Using those figures, the town employees cost us more than half of the town's budget! Can we truly afford to keep doing this, year after year?
Geewiz, I know that this year my wife and I have earned the same maybe a little less but our expenses have gone through the roof.
as a family we have had to cut alot of things out just to get by.
I should try to get a job for the town or the government at any level these people never have to live like the regular folks, while everyone else is afraid of pay cuts or lay offs, the town employees seem to have it made.
I am shocked by the salaries of some of these people and it seems to me they get a performance bonus for going over budget, WOW. With the economy being what it is I know I will not be getting a raise this year,I think I'm lucky just to keep working. Taxpayers in this country have been bailing out airlines for many years now we are bailing out credit company's because of bad judgement and "GREED" and now we will be bailing out the big 3 auto companys.
Who is going to bail out the taxpayers??? arent we in trouble also. If I make a bad business decision I feel the loss, if a competitor takes some of my business away I feel the loss, Do I expect the government to step in and help me, NO. its called free enterprise.
Maybe we have to reward our department heads for cutting the budget or finding a way to save moneylike if Dale G could find a way to cut his budget by 15-20 % we could give him 5% back as a true performance budget, Instead we seem to reward for spending to mutch
It is sad to hear how people are just getting by, while the town's employees have such job security, pay raise and perks. The town employees buy $150.00 shoes from Northeast Shoe Co. while the rest of us ponder about buying our shoes at Payless or Wal-Mart, then there's the relax fit jeans they can wear all weekend and then have the tax payer pay for laundry cleaning. We have one last hope to take back our town in March of 2009, which is for everyone who's outraged over what's been going on to show up at Deliberative Session and voice your concerns. It will only take about 1 hour of your time to be there and vote to support Winchester Informer's budget cuts. The selectmen and the budget committee won't make meaningful budget cuts so we will do it for them. We, the tax payers group will, if enough people show up at deliberative session we will become the new budget committee of Winchester, calling ourselves the slash and cut committee.
I hear the town employees are not happy with this web site, truth hurts, except for Rick they could all be replaced in 24 hrs. I would change my ways, some people may be gone after march. If they cut from the top the town wont even skip a beat. The only reason they have a job is to serve the town, when they are only serving themselfs its time to regroup.
I too would like to see what these few people are costing us in black and white. My God, we can't believe that we are paying out over a million dollars for their salaries and benefits, just who do they think they are? This is just beyond belief and really hard to swallow. How did this all come about? Why hasn't anyone spoken up about this sooner when perhaps we may have been able to do something about this? We need to find a way to remove this whole bunch and elect officials who will really work for us.
Ref: Warwick Road resident; The town elected officials kept things under raps for the longest time. No one dared to speak out. Wasteful spending has been going on in Winchester for many many years log before John Stetser. The town employees wouldn't say anything because they were getting their fair share of the pie. When the selectmen hired John Stetser wasteful spending increased as he moved money around the budget. Again the selectmen said nothing town employees kept quite with large annual raises, performance bonus, COLA raises, perks and low productivity. This was kept so secret and protected by John Stetser and the selectmen. Brain Moser and Susan Newell did tried to stop it at what cost, the boot by the uninformed kept in the dark tax voters. I was elected to the budget committee and didn't even run for office, One day I was handed a copy of all the town's spending with no explanation where the money went. It made no sense. I demanded to see copies of the invoices of the expenditures and John Stetser stopped me at the door from looking into the file at the finance office until I filed suit in Cheshire County Superior Court under the right to know law. John Stetser had a lot to hide. My news letter last year sent to every house hold started a movement and it is not going to stop.
Warwick Road, This is not that new but the word didn't get out until Bob Davis came out with a news letter last year. He dug deap, and has taken a lot of grief, and had one hell of a time getting some people to obey the law. Can't understand why town hall people would want to keep the voters in the dark? Stay tuned, I think more info is on the way.
This is the problem with many small town governments and we're not alone when it comes to unnecessary and foolish expenditures and wasteful uses of tax dollars. Too many people being related to each other working at town halls creates a lot of the issues as no one wants to see a relative laid off or receiving less than what some other town pays their employees. Trouble here in Winchester is too many of our town employees are related to each other and unlike other towns with lots of businesses to offset taxes, there is none here in Winchester. Sure we have Plum-Pak and Kulick's market and Harborside; but after that the town is the next highest employer. So what does that say for the people who have been in charge, not much. Instead of attracting manufacturing firms to the area or other large companies, we have race tracks and sub-divisions and condos, none of which helps with the tax base. Winchester is a stagnant, dieing town, with the fourth highest tax rate in the state and a payroll of almost a million and a half and our elected officials are too concerned with their own needs to address the concerns of the average citizen. Why else at a time when the economy is in a downward spiral and unemployment is at an all time high, would a town government hand out raises to every employee on the books, give them performance bonuses for going over budget and continue to add to an already bloated budget despite knowing most citizens are tapped out just trying to get by? Seems to me they just don't care, period. Bob Gray speaks of cut backs and saving the town money; yet at every board of selectman and budget committee meeting, instead of looking at ways to trim costs, they just keep adding to them and keeping the status quo. Heaven forbid that one of the departments heads would get paid less than what someone holding the same position in another town gets or that the highway department or police department or the ambulance department can't make do with the equipment they have. Perhaps if they actually took care of it like it was their own and stopped abusing it, we wouldn't have to keep shelling out for repairs and replacement vehicles. Looking over the line item budgets in these departments there is plenty of room for cuts, why didn't the BOS and Budget Committee make them?
I am one of the people who has called the town over what I have read on this web site and have been told that what gets posted here is all lies and that you people are just a handfull of troublemakers trying to cause trouble for the selectman and specifically the planning board chairperson, Margaret Sharra. I was very upset at what I was told and know after seeing your published budget reports and seeing what Bob Davis has written that it's the town that is providing the misinformation and lies. I hope that you continue to try to educate the rest of the town's people with your information and that you can provide more written information like you have on your other site for all to see. It would be most helpful to have these salaries and benefit packages posted for all to see and then we'll see firsthand just how much the town's officials are misleading all of us.
G V R Its one hell of a big handfull. About lies, they learned from the best John Stetser.I guess they forgot we sent John packing,and these same people you talked too said it could"nt done.
Bob - if you can't get your hands on this year's salaries and bonuses, I recommend that you post last year's on the website. So everyone can see/recall the expenses!
I know that every year, the Highway Department is robbing Peter to pay Paul - because they ALWAYS go over budget. And it is usually from the Water Dept.'s budget.
If John Lynch can shave millions off the New Hampshire budget for this year, the Town of Winchester should to. Start but cutting out employees.
Cutting out, part time, salaried, there are lots of ways to save money. The state doesn't keep enough plow trucks to get the job done all summer, they hire private contractors. Gov. Lynch told his dept. heads NO INCREASES for two years. The production would increase with proper leadership.The town hall can scream lies, we all know you can't run a business or household if its this topheavy or when the employees run the show.
Yes I have copies of all the full time gross employees wages and benefits, which will include town's share of paid medical, dental, eye glass, shoe and clothing allowances. All though the gross amounts will be less than last years figures as Bob Gray explained, it does not include this years overtime.
Right now we will be going around the town to get signatures for some Warrant of our own.
We are in the process of making room for these facts.
Why do we still need so many full time police officers? I thought that the original reason for more was because of Mr. Mikes being open 24 hours and they needed one for the over night. Ok that was great but they are no longer 24 hours and I have not herd of anyone being cut. There is no reason they can not do it as other towns and have an "on call" officer for the over nights. There are 1 or 2 that still live in town.
Why were there no tracks in the snow at the town hall at 7:00am this morning? People that work in the real world get to work on time or get fired.
Re: requests by Mary K. and Warwick Road family ..
We have verified and posted the information requested on employee costs to the taxpayers. You can view this information by going to the Winchester Informer homepage ( link at bottom of this page ) and clicking on the "Town Budget" link and scrolling down.
Thank you for providing this for all of us; but seeing it makes it even harder to swallow. To think that over a third of my tax bill goes to salaries is very disturbing to say the least. No wonder people wanted this information kept in the dark, they should be ashamed.
Just imagine the total pay of police with detail work, and hwy. with overtime. Damm with coffee,tv,jeans,boots,and bonuses,no commute, it don't get no better than that. Or get a job in the town hall,no commute and bonuses, warm in winter, cool in summer,super wages, this is the town to work for.
"Frozen sick time", what a wonderful way to steal more money from the taxpayers. I'd like to know who the sob was that thought up this ploy and inserted it into the employees handbook. Sick time was set up to help an ailing employee get by while ill or recovering, not as another golden parachute handed out as a bonus. In my business you either use them during the year or lose them, THEY ARE NOT ACCRUED, nor is vacation time. It's time we, as concerned citizens and over stressed taxpayers demand an end to all of these incredulous perks at the goldmine know as the town hall and start getting some real accountability there, it is after all OUR MONEY!!!
I believe employees all the way around should be able to save vacation time (it is their time) but should use or lose sick time it is a policy in most work places now
And I am self employed and I have no paid vacation time nor sick days Its A price I pay to be independant
Vacation time off, is time that you have earned through your years of service with your particular employer and depends on their employee policies. Usually after 1 year, you get 2 weeks of paid time ( vacation ) and it goes up year after year of service, until a set limit; usually 5 weeks. It is given and used during the year and never accrued or banked to be used at a later date. You either use the time off during that fiscal year or lose it .. period. Sick time is something else, usually 4 - 6 days that you may take off and get paid for when you are sick. It is not the same as personal time and it is never banked or accrued, again, you use it or lose it.
That this town has established a policy to bank sick time is asinine and ludicrous to say the least. Just one more of the perks they have devised for family and friends at our expense. I'll vote no on this article and also will be writing up a warrant article of my own to do away with this nonsense.
Winchester business owner, makes sense, thank you.
Ref: Winchester Business Owner. If you are really thinking about having a petition warrant to change the Winchester Policy Book you may want to contract the attorney general office to see if you can make changes by signed petition warrants. You maybe only able to cut the money for this line item, since we can not vote on line items line for line you have to cut the whole budget. Let us know we will gladly sign the petition.
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