Tax Cut ideas from our Readers: Don't use Police to Direct Traffic

In the incredibly popular September 27th post entitled "Chuck Marino on Haverstraw and West River Crossing" (we're up to 47 Comments at last look, and that's just the ones that made it to being published), a reader who goes by the moniker of 'TheTruth' discussed the following tax-saving thought:

We can take this thread down another road and figure out while Milford, Orange, and most other towns in the area don't use cops to direct traffic. The cops are getting overtime at about $45 hour while the person hired by UI or SBC (AT+T) gets about $12. Some projects may require cops but I watched them sit around up at Saw Mill Road for weeks while construction was stopped. I have seen roads closed off of Ocean Ave with cops behind the barracades. Some will say the contractor pays the cops (they do) but they also inflate the price to cover the expense. West Haven has in it's union contract that WH Police must be used for traffic duty. Who negotiates this stuff ? The sad part is the traffic personel from the utilities do a better job at directing traffic than the cops do !

It all adds up people. West Haven is a modest town and the average Cop and fireman is making 80K a year with great benefits and an incredible pension on the backs of West Haven taxpayers. At some point it has to stop !

I don't know the source of the salaries, but if they are accurate, $12/hr is about one quarter of the cost of $45/hour - this sounds like a viable cost cutting measure to me. Time to research the budget to see if the budget is broken down in a way that we can see how much this would save.

What do others think of this idea?