RAISES

[JEFF MELLENCAMP]

Our Chief sat down with us and went over the budget. As we went from page to page I saw Lawyer fees $25,000 I was amazed that the board is unwilling to give us a 3% raise yet they are willing to spend $25,000 of the public tax dollars on a lawyer just because we went union. We are paid 17,000-19,500 starting salary. I believe that the tax money should be spent on getting our pay where it should be. I was hoping to hear what percentage of the your budgets go to payroll.
thanks

[benson911]

Our department operates out of general funds assigned to the fire budget, in other words, no specific levies for fire or EMS. We have an approximately $3.5million budget, of that approximately $3.2million goes to salaries and benefits. 91% of our budget pays our salaries and provides the benefits (Pension, Medical, Dental, Eye.)

What's interesting is the department's "operating" budget is only $300,000. It gets stretched pretty thin. Any large purchases are "capital improvements" and are purchased separately from the FD budget, such as our new pumper coming in April.

I almost forgot - we got a 4% raise this year. We negotiated the raise in our last contract. Do you have a contract with the city?

[This message has been edited by benson911 (edited January 18, 2000).]

[FitzBFDT2]

Our department has a budget of about $9.4 million. Almost the whole thing is dedicated to salaries and benefits. The operating budget is around $400,000.

Signed a 5 year contract last year worth 18.25%.

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Kevin M. Fitzhenry, bfdt2@injersey.com
Firefighter, Truck Co. 2
City of Bayonne (NJ) FD
www.bayonne.net/bfd/ (http://www.bayonne.net/bfd/)