The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has made significant cost-saving reforms in response to recommendations in a state audit.

State Comptroller Matt Boxer says he’s pleased Turnpike Authority officials have made a series of improvements in their practices that will save millions of dollars a year.
 

 “They have eliminated improper bonuses and sick leave payouts for their management and many of their workers. These were things like they were paying people bonuses for working on their birthdays. They were letting people cash in sick time that they weren’t using.”

Changes were also made to lower the costs of health care coverage.

Boxer says the Authority is in the process of negotiating new collective bargaining agreements to end the problematic perks for all of its workers.

“What we’ve found in our audit is that they’ve done what they told us they would do which is they’ve made proposals that would take these problematic practices out of the employment agreements, and we’ll continue to monitor to make sure that actually happens.”

He says there’s still more to be done and is recommending a cap on the employees’ total compensation.

“They’ve addressed a lot of the underlying issues that led to the excessive compensation. Now they’re working on implementing a cap just to make sure that these problematic practices never happen again.”