Public employee perks batter local taxpayers

When was the last time you got a bonus just for staying on the job? If you are in the private sector, the answer is probably never. If you work for the city of Tampa, you probably got one last year.

The city offers a "longevity" bonus each November to employees who have worked for five years or longer. Workers get $500 after five years, and the amount increases each year until it reaches $1,500 after 25 years.

This costs taxpayers almost $3 million a year.

It is just another example of how the pay and benefits for public jobs have been allowed to far outstrip the private sector.

Mayor Pam Iorio, to her credit, at least has eliminated the bonus for managers. During these austere times, the entire program should be scaled back, if not eliminated. But since it has become part of the unions' contracts, that isn't going to happen.

The bonus may have been harmless enough - or even a justified reward - back in the days when government workers' pay was far below private companies.

But in the last decade or so public employees' compensation has been allowed to grow and grow. As we've reported, U.S. Department of Labor research found private industry pays only 75 percent of the average pay given to employees of state and local government.

This taxpayer generosity has resulted not in gratitude, but even more demands.

Tampa's police, fire and general employee unions, for instance, insist on getting raises this year, though the city faces a $52 million budget shortfall and the local unemployment rate is 11 percent, among the highest in the state.

The fire and police unions are among the best paid in the state. A police officer's startling salary is $46,384, and annual merit increase will bring the pay to $75,358 after 12 years. A starting salary for a firefighter-emergency medical technician is almost $38,000. For a firefighter-paramedic, it's $44,019.

The union contracts call for an annual cost of living raise and an annual "merit" raise, which are given each year until the worker reaches the top of his or her particular pay grade. About half of the union members get the merit raise. Merit is a misnomer. The automatic raise has little to do with performance.

Since 2000, the combined annual raises for police have ranged from 7.2 percent to as much as 9.2 percent. The cost-of-living raise has never been lower than 3 percent; the merit has never been lower than 4.2 percent. The 2009 contract gives police a 4.5 percent raise for cost of living and 4.2 percent for merit.

The firefighters' combined raises have ranged from 8 percent to 11 percent. Add the 2.9 percent bonus city council last year began giving to EMT technicians and paramedics, who include virtually all firefighters, and the combined raises have been as high as 12.9 percent.

The cost-of-living raise, which has been as high as 6 percent, has never been lower than 2.5 percent. The merit raise has never been lower than 3 percent.

The 2009 contract gives a 2.5 percent raise for cost of living, 3.5 percent for merit and 2.9 percent for the EMT bonus

The general worker union's raises have been similarly generous, with the combined raises ranging from 5.5 percent to 9.5 percent since 2000.

These hefty salary increases came during a period when private sector workers felt fortunate to get 2 percent raises. In the last few years, private workers were relieved if they simply kept their jobs, as companies laid off workers, cut salaries, eliminated 401K contributions and reduced benefits.

And the unions also enjoy a generous pension package. Police and firefighters can retire after 20 years and receive 63 percent of their average earnings - the average of their highest three years of income. After 30 years, they can retire with almost 95 percent of their average earnings.

Yet despite their handsome treatment by Tampa taxpayers over the years, the unions are fighting Iorio's effort to have no raises in the city budget. The matter will end up before city council, which in past years has refused to buck the politically influential unions.

City workers - especially public safety workers - deserve a good salary and decent benefits. But they are getting that and then some.

It's well past time that elected leaders demonstrated a little more concern for battered taxpayers and a little less for insatiable unions.