State volunteerism will be costly

Let’s see if we have this right. The state can allow 50,000 employees to take 12 days a year off from work. Assuming they all work eight hours a day, that equals 4.8 million hours a year. If we did some quick calculating, and again assumed they make at least $15 per hour, we arrive at a potential cost of $72 million. Should we assume this to be the maximum cost?

Do some make more than $15 an hour? Do benefits (health insurance, pension, etc) increase the cost further?

The potential cost is staggering. Simply using these figures, and based on a 40-hour work week, and a 52-week year, it’s reasonable to assume more than 2,300 state employees are not needed. We are assured no coverage would be needed in the form of overtime or the like to cover these work hours.

This doesn’t include the potential for abuses. Being paid to volunteer using taxpayer money doesn’t really fit the time-honored definition of volunteerism.

Although $72 million may not seem like a great deal to some politicians, think of what it would mean to any town or city budget.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the governor would volunteer to reduce the state tax burden by finding a way to cut the 2,300 state employees we now find we don’t need and let that money go to the local government for much-needed use?

FRANCIS J. O’CONNOR

Uxbridge