When Pigs Fly: Part 3
New Employee Salary and Local Wage Tax Benefits
The most recent People Protecting Communities' analysis of Resource Recovery's (RRLLC) official benefits claim from their landfill permit application submitted to DEP in May 2006 shows their annual salary and local wage taxes to be grossly overestimated.
RRLLC bases their salary/wage tax benefit on a workforce of 69 employees, claiming $2.5 million in annual salary benefits and $25,800 in annual school wage tax benefits to the Philipsburg Osceola School District (POSD).
The proposed nearby Camp Hope Run Landfill in Boggs Township, Clearfield County — very similar in size, design and capacity — claims only 20 employees on their official permit application submitted to DEP in August 2006. A very recent U.S. Census study shows nearly three quarters of similar-sized landfills in the United States to employ 19 people or less.
Multiplying RRLLC's claimed salary rate times the more typical 20 personnel generates a $725,000 payroll and $7,100 in school wage taxes annually — making RRLLC's official wage and wage tax benefit 3.5 times higher than can reasonably be defended!
RRLLC GREATLY EXAGGERATES THIS BENEFIT!
Is RRLLC going to spend 3.5 times more in personnel costs than necessary to operate their landfill? Are they willing to substantially reduce their profits and competitiveness with other Pennsylvania landfills to do so?
Watch for When Pigs Fly: Part 4 for further analysis of RRLLC's claimed benefits.