Submitted by County Guy, Sep 11, 2008 08:33

No matter how you try to justify the raises the State Police got, It is obvious that State government is broken. Over the past few years almost all state employees have gotten raises. Parks police and Encon officers got a 27% raise a little over 2 years ago boosting their base pay to around $65,000. All the while Counties are buckling under the crushing burden of Medicaid and welfare which Albany refuse to cut. At face value the Troopers raises don't seem all that bad. But when you consider that State police are a secondary police agency to Sheriffs Deputies in many counties the money they are being paid is outrages. Consider that County Sheriffs Deputies across the state do the same job and patrol many of the same areas as Troopers do. The new contract of the troopers gives a little over 14% pay upgrade. That does not reflect hidden money in the new contract. One trooper I know said "I would have been happy with the 3-3-3 and 4 but when I saw all of the hidden money, I could not believe it." Trooper base pay after 5 years with the new contract will be somewhere between $90,000 to $100,000 depending on troopers posting. Deputy Sheriffs pay varies from county to county and averages around $50,000 base. To even the most uneducated person, When you are paying one cop almost twice as much to do the same job something is way out of wack.

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