9/02/2008

Virginians Pay Australian Toll CEO Salary

Virginia motorists paid $13.7 million in tolls to an Australian company that paid its former CEO $14.3 million.

From TheNewspaper.com

Former CEO Kim EdwardsIt took more than a year's worth of toll revenue on a Virginia highway just to pay a single employee of an Australian firm. Last year, Virginia motorists handed the Melbourne-based company that operates the Pocahontas Parkway near Richmond a total of $13.7 million in tolls and fees. The amount reflected a significant increase over the previous year as Transurban raised toll rates steeply in January, but it failed to cover the salary of CEO Kim Edwards who pocketed $9.2 million in bonuses and $5.2 million in termination benefits for his departure from the company in April. Combined with his salary, his total payout was A$16,664,532 (US $14,316,553).

Now that Edwards is gone, Virginia tolls do not even cover the multi-million dollar compensation packages offered to Transurban's top six executives. New CEO Chris Lynch takes the largest share with $3,839,783 in compensation. The other seven-figure employees take home the following in pay and other benefits:
  • North America President Michael Kulper, $3,056,337
  • Chief Financial Officer Chris Brant, $2,289,561
  • Chief Operating Officer Brendan Bourke, $2,245,434
  • Executive Vice President Ken Daley, $1,917,822
  • Group General Manager P O'Shea, $1,764,101
  • Total Compensation for key management: $34,651,427
The massive payments were made despite the company's net operating loss of more than $140 million.

Read the whole story HERE.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the most disturbing article I've read in my 4 years of reading this blog. This should be front page news everywhere. Proof that NOT ONE CENT of tolling revenue went to the benefit of the motorists, the country, the state, or even the rest of the tolling company. What a disgusting fact, and what a selfish prick. How much money does one man need. How much more did this man, who contributed nothing to the world, earn than Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, all of the doctors in Austin, and more. Why should this asshole earn a dime in the first place. Go to Transurban.com and see what they do- they provide "benefits" by installing tollbooths.

Anonymous said...

There are producers of capital, consumers of capital and destroyers of capital. The latter is lethal to the former two.

Anonymous said...

yep why do you think that those "pay by mail" tolls never arrive then get sent to collections where you get "raped" with a 5000% penalty???? you gotta make up for it somewhere.

Anonymous said...

I will never pay by mail. Never buy a TX tag either. Only drive on toll roads when I have to and it's pay with quarters for me and hope their license plate camera doesn't mess up. Almost want to log the date and time and GPS and video of me throwing in my quarters so if I have to go to court for their intentional screwups I can fight it.

Anonymous said...

This will happen in Texas, wait and see...Perry is getting his first and then it all will trickle down until Texas Tolls are in the hole as well. I to will not buy a TXtag, or drive on a toll road. This just reinforces my disgust with TxDOT and Perry. When executives at toll companies earn this kind of money and operate in the hole, where the hell is the outrage. I never heard one thing about this in the news. If a toll road was built and operated by the state this kind of $hit would not happen. Salaries would be kept low and all those millions would have gone back into the transportation infrastructure. The states have the ability to build toll roads and operate them with cheap tolls yet they continue to allow private companies to screw the taxpayer. Lobbyists and corporate special interests need to be eliminated from the government. This is legal corruption. What the hell does any one person do that makes them worth $14mill (US). You can bet I will be paying closer attention at the voting booth next time. Damn Politicians!!