newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

When government employees receive paid time off for union business instead of their job, a state report says New Jersey taxpayers are paying their way.

The State Commission of Investigation has determined that government-paid leave for public employees cost taxpayers more than $30 million between 2006 and 2011.

The report said the practice of granting time off for union work was not uncommon or improper; the state commission found significant and questionable variations in how such leave is authorized, who keeps track of it, and who pays the final bill, according to Bloomberg.

The report was based on contracts from 2006 through 2011 of more than 120 school districts, all 21 counties, 17 municipalities and 12 state government departments.

“This shady, often-hidden public subsidy of union leave from paid public employment costs us all millions every year and must end,” said Governor Chris Christie spokesman, Michael Drewniak, according to philly.com. Laverne Harvey, Camden Education Association president, called the report a “witch hunt” because of Christie’s “opposition to unions.”

The New Jersey governor has fought unions and forced cuts to union benefits that he says have contributed to New Jersey’s budget issues.

“You can go into any town or school district, compare city workers to school district employees to county employees, and you’ll find some that are on full-time union leave for union business at taxpayer expense, some who are on full-time leave that the union picks up the tab, and some in which the costs are shared,” said Lee Seglem, assistant director of the Commission of Investigation, according to CBS Philly.

The report said that the cost of police and fire union officials’ salaries and benefits in Newark was more than $7.8 million from January 2006 to June 2011, and sometimes union officials received an automobile and gas paid for by taxpayers.