Audit finds fringe benefits spike for TriMet staff
PORTLAND, Ore. – Just when TriMet’s making cuts and asking taxpayers for more money to replace worn out buses, a new audit shows the cost of fringe benefits keeps going up.
TriMet is already the most generous transit agency in the country. It picks up the entire health care tab for union employees, their families and all retirees. When all the other fringe benefits are added in, an outside audit that accounts for long-term liability shows TriMet is actually responsible for more in fringe benefits than wages.
Wages added up to $125 million and benefits added another $191 million. And over the last decade, fringe benefits have gone from 61 percent of wages to 118 percent to now 152 percent.
That means for every dollar paid, TriMet is responsible for $1.52 in benefits.
Retiree benefits alone have gone up 29 percent. The number’s high due to rising medical premiums, new rules that require more detailed reporting and the number of employees nearing retirement.
On paper what’s been promised has gone from $632 million in 2008 to $816 million.
“That’s adding apples, oranges and grapefruits together to get a completely unreasonable number,” said Neil McFarlane, TriMet’s general manager.
He said the numbers are just projections. And while good health care for workers is a priority, the new union contract aims to get them in line with the rest of the industry.
“We really do need to reform our health care package that our TriMet employees enjoy,” he said.
“No one in the private sector that I know of does that,” said John Charles with Cascade Policy Institute. “No one in the public sector does that. It’s not sustainable.”
He said TriMet’s on a financially unsustainable path.
“The agency needs to stop looking for more money and focus on reducing expenses. Otherwise, you’re going to continue the death spiral of more cuts, more angry people and less revenue,” he said.
New accounting rules will require this off-the-books debt be put on the books. The outside auditor told TriMet that could hinder bond sales.
The union did not return phone calls for comment.