(The following story by Paul Nussbaum appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on March 3, 2010.)
PHILADELPHIA — As NJ Transit prepares to raise fares and cut bus and train service, agency officials said yesterday that they also would lay off more than 200 workers and cut executives’ salaries 5 percent.
The layoffs of union and nonunion workers will reduce the agency’s workforce about 2 percent.
The transit agency also will reduce its contributions to employees’ 401(k) plans by one-third and freeze spending.
The moves announced yesterday will save about $30 million, officials said. NJ Transit faces a deficit of about $300 million by June 2011.
Details on fare hikes and service cuts will be announced next week, and hearings will be held later this month, officials said.
The budget-cutting at NJ Transit is part of a broader push by Gov. Christie to reduce state spending as his administration grapples with a budget deficit of $2.2 billion this fiscal year and as much as $11 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The 5 percent cut in executive pay means the annual salary of new Executive Director James Weinstein will be reduced July 1 to $248,257.80, from $261,324.
Currently, NJ Transit contributes 3 percent of employees’ salaries to their 401(k) retirement plans. That will be reduced to 2 percent.
It was unclear how many of the job losses would come from union ranks. The agency has more than 11,000 workers, including nearly 10,000 union employees.
The agency has cut its nonunion ranks by 240 jobs since 2007, NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett said. She said there were no reductions in union jobs in that time.
Democratic legislative leaders have criticized the planned fare increases and service cuts at NJ Transit as unfair because motorists are not being asked to pay more.
“A fare increase from Gov. Christie, after all, is no different from a tax increase,” Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski (D., Middlesex) said recently. “This is actually a double hit, because commuters will pay more for less service.”