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Carr: Win this one for all of the double-dippers

Wednesday, April 3, 2013
By: Howie Carr

Double-dipper — few other things drive voters into such a frenzy as the thought of some payroll patriot collecting not one, but two paychecks, at least one of them from the taxpayers themselves.

I mean, it’s one thing to feed at the public trough. It’s something else altogether to lick the plate.

It looked like we were going to have two double-dippers in the Boston mayor’s race. But now state Rep. Marty Walsh says he is giving up his $167,911-a-year job as secretary/treasurer of the Boston Building and Construction Trades Council “within the next 10 days.”

And how about the $38,750 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee that your fellow pinky-rings gave you?

“That’s going, too,” he said. “Everything with the job, gone. I’m going to have to buy a car — I’ve owned one before, I just don’t have one of my own right now.”

Good Lord, it sounds like he’s trying to channel Ray Flynn circa 1983.

“What color was that station wagon of his, red?”

I seem to remember it as being brown — rust brown. Mostly rust, not so much brown.

Of course, Walsh didn’t have much choice in the matter if he wanted to run. Last year, the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld called him out on his work for Granny Warren while collecting both the union salary and his House chairman’s pay of $67,000.

“I’m not part of that 1 percent,” Walsh said then.

No, Marty, you were more like part of that one-half of 1 percent. At least then.

Then there is Jim Rooney, boss of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Word is that he’s been calling around to the “business community,” whatever that means in Boston these days. His current pay is $257,500 a year. He also collects a pension from the MBTA. His flack didn’t get back to me with the current number on that one, but in 2001 the T kiss in the mail was $68,000 a year.

At the age of 43.

Between the MBTA, the MCCA and chief of staff for Mumbles at City Hall, it would seem that Rooney has spent a lot more time in the hackerama than in the Dreaded Private Sector. And by the way, his current salary is down from what he made in 2011 — $377,000, including $114,000 in “bonuses” from 2009 and 2010. Gotta love those public-sector bonuses.

But I rather doubt Rooney’s going to run. I left him a message asking the question, and repeated the request to his flack, who said, “I passed on your request to Jim.” When the phone didn’t ring, I knew it was Rooney.

Oh well, so it looks like no double-dippers in the fight. That’s OK, I’ll find other things to write about. Anyone know exactly how tall Rob Consalvo is?