Thursday, 4:30 PM
Governor not yet looking into details
By Lisa Wangsness, GLOBE STAFF
WESTPORT -- Governor Deval Patrick signaled Wednesday that he has little appetite to take on a state policy, one fiercely protected by the state’s police unions, that allows officers to collect tens of thousands of dollars extra each year for working construction details.
It’s "not at the top of my list, to be perfectly candid," Patrick said, in response to a Globe report that nearly 10 percent of the State Police force earned more last year than his salary as governor because of detail work.
Patrick said he understands concerns about the high paychecks, but downplayed the idea that the state could save much money by changing the detail policy, which automatically assigns police to most public and private road and utility work sites. He said the cost of the details is more of a concern for private construction businesses, who must pay the officers a higher wage than civilian flaggers earn.
A Patrick spokesman said later that the governor was speaking mostly about local police details, which have less of an impact on state coffers than the State Police details.
The Globe report found that State Police officers make millions of dollars a year from state projects, $6.1 million on Big Dig details and $7.2 million on Massachusetts Port Authority details in 2006.
Utility companies pass the cost of the details along to ratepayers, said David Tuerck, executive director of the conservative Beacon Hill Institute, and the state is a large consumer of electricity and telecommunications services.
Tuerck said he found Patrick’s reluctance to take on the issue of details to be disappointing. "It would be a signal that the state is getting tough on public employee unions, which is what the state really needs to do to save money," he said.
Kyle Sullivan, Patrick’s press secretary, said later that the governor has not ruled out reviewing the detail policy later in his term.
"The governor is focused on his top priorities of writing the state budget, reorganizing government, and putting together a comprehensive education plan for Massachusetts," Sullivan said. "This focus on these priorities does not foreclose the possibility of looking at the police detail issue in the future."
