ALBANY – Overtime costs paid by the state jumped a whopping 32 percent over the past four years, The Post has learned.
In 1999-00, the state paid a total of $298 million in overtime, according to figures obtained by The Post from the state Comptroller’s Office.
In the 2002-03 fiscal year, which ended March 31, that total ballooned by nearly a third, to $393 million.
That number even topped the $390.8 million payout for 2001-02 – when the state was hit with a huge wave of overtime spending after 9/11.
The State Police spent $198 million in overtime the past four years – including a whopping $73 million in the year of 9/11. The prison system, psychiatric hospitals, transportation department and centers for the mentally retarded also spent heavily on OT over the last four years.
The Post reported last month that the overtime king of New York in the 2002-03 fiscal year was upstate prison guard Richard Tierney, who took home close to $100,000 in overtime on top of his $50,000 salary.
And seven of the top 10 overtime earners in the last fiscal year worked in either a prison or mental hospital.
In 2002-03 alone, the state’s prison system spent nearly $80 million in OT, while psych-center workers raked in more than $50 million in extra cash – both way above 1999-00 figures.
“Instead of replacing people who leave, they force people to work overtime,” charged Denyce Duncan Lacy, spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, which represents 55,000 state professional workers.
“They’re literally spending millions on overtime when they can get two people, or sometimes literally three people, for the price they’re paying one,” she added.
The Pataki administration says the increase in OT can be attributed to the “anomalies” of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, subsequent homeland security activities and general salary increases.
“The agencies have been staying within their budgeted spending,” said Pataki budget spokesman Ken Brown.
But others, including several unions, say that while the Sept. 11 attacks played a role, the state’s fiscal crisis, which has led to hiring freezes and downsizing, has contributed even more.
They charge that the Pataki administration has left facilities understaffed by relying more on overtime than filling vacant positions that would require set salaries and benefits.
“It causes problems with safety,” Duncan Lacy said of the strategy.
E.J. McMahon, of the Manhattan Institute think tank, doesn’t believe the overtime situation will change anytime soon.
“The state’s broke, the budget is being pinched and the governor will have to squeeze spending in the agencies even more, so there’s probably more pressure to rely on overtime,” he said.
EXTRA MONEY
Top overtime totals by state agency for past four years:
Prison system:
1999-00: $57.3 million
2002-03: $79.9 million
Increase: 39.4 percent
Mental hospitals:
1999-00: $35.6 million
2002-03: $51.4 million
Increase: 44.4 percent
New York State Police:
1999-00: $36.9 million
2002-03: $48.4 million
Increase: 31.2 percent (does not factor in $73 million in overtime spent by state police the year of the 9-11 terrorist attacks)
Centers for the developmentally disabled:
1999-00: $30 million
2002-03: $46.9 million
Increase: 56.3 percent
Department of Transportation:
1999-00: $23.3 million
2002-03: $37.2 million
Increase: 59.7 percent
(SOURCE: State Comptroller’s Office)