CNBNews

Dorothy Philbin | CNBNews

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ-I worked for 17 years for INA, later to become CIGNA.  That was my business experience.  I taught every grade from kindergarten through 400-level Rutgers University.  That was my educational experience.  I owned a small bus tour company.  Never, in any of these experiences, did I work only 40 hours a week.  Never, in any of these experiences, did I get paid for working overtime.  This is the world of professional/managerial jobs.

OPINION

 

Every time I drive around Broadway and Monmouth Sts. I see the lighted sign at the municipal building telling taxpayers to pay their taxes and other bills online.  Does this do away with an employee and save the taxpayers money? Then, our city office employees have Fridays off!  What!  I know other towns do that but that has nothing to do with Gloucester City.  We are one of the poorest cities in the state but have near-highest taxes in the state.  We have to put a stop to this.

 

Between the posted hours on the website (you have to look hard to find them) and knowing what the rules were when my late husband worked for the city, I learned that our municipal employees work about 31 hours per week.

 

I went onto datauniverse.com and found we had 62 office employees as of December 31, 2021.  I picked one name from each of the seven pages.  From their annual salaries, I figured out their weekly and then hourly pay for 31 hours per week. I then did the same thing but for 40 hours per week.  Feel free to double-check my math, but I calculated that the city would save $582 per hour or $30,264 per year if our city performed the way successful businesses do.

 

Bill Cleary pointed out a few weeks ago that there are more rentals in Gloucester City than owned properties.  I think tenants figure, "this doesn't apply to me; I don't pay property taxes."  Guess what?  You do.  According to the State of New Jersey, 16% of your rent goes to property taxes.  Since our income is so low and our taxes are so high, 25% of your rent going to taxes is reasonable.  If the landlord's property taxes decrease, he will probably just put the difference into his pocket - unless you are prepared to negotiate a lower rent.  

 

I'll be back with many more ways our city government wastes money.