Budget bloat that just won’t float
UMass, MSP payrolls due for ‘a wake-up call,’ critics say
UMass and State Police budgets are in for a “wakeup call,” critics warn, as bloated salaries and an abundance of overtime payouts remain the norm even as the coronavirus pandemic has spurred layoffs and sent state revenues crashing.
“A wake-up call is going to have to occur,” said David Tuerck, Beacon Hill Institute president. “These huge salaries being paid out to a huge amount of people is an anachronism at this point.”
UMass is facing a $335 million shortfall for the current fiscal year and is still “scenario planning” for next year, officials said. To cut costs, UMass slashed its workforce by 16% and forced furloughs on 4,600 employees — that’s in addition to $138 million in non-personnel cuts.
But the system continues to have the most expensive payroll of any state agency at $1.4 billion. More than 4,000 earning over $100,000 — including UMass President Martin Meehan, who grossed $615,000 last year. A chancellor and a provost each earned more than $1 million last year — the state’s two highest earners.
UMass spokesman John T. Hoey defended the state university system which he said is “one of Commonwealth’s most powerful economic engines.” Leadership, he said, were some of the first to take furloughs of two weeks in the spring.
“The University generates $7.5 billion of economic impact across the state, a nearly 10-fold return on the state’s investment and spins of 30,000 private-sector jobs,” Hoey said. “Its faculty conducts $684 million of research activity every year, which is critical to the innovation economies of every region of the state.”
Gov. Charlie Baker declined to address UMass’s surging payroll, instead reiterating efforts to reduce payroll within state government. Operational expenses at the quasi-public university system are outside the Republican governor’s purview.
Paul Diego Craney of the right-leaning Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called it a “cop out.”
“When UMass is asking the state for more money, it has to come with a hook. When there is scandal after scandal at the State Police, leadership needs to push for reforms,” Craney said. “The buck has to stop somewhere and stops with governor.”
As for the State Police, four troopers took home more than $300,000 in 2020. Another 360-plus earned $200,000 and up in the last year.
The force remains under intense scrutiny following a series of indictments and guilty pleas from overtime abuse. Other troopers have been forced to pay restitution and nearly two dozen have been suspended. Internal audits that began in 2017 found 46 department members had potentially submitted false records for overtime they didn’t work.