SEPTA’s rampant overtime spending

The pandemic has thrown SEPTA into a budget crisis. Ridership and revenue are both way down and the agency is considering service cuts. But that didn’t stop them from spending what experts say is an unusually large amount of money on overtime. One SEPTA police officer doubled his salary and made almost as much as the mayor of Philadelphia. Ryan Briggs with WHYY’s PlanPhilly and Michaela Winberg with WHYY’s Billy Penn uncovered this troubling pattern, which stands in stark relief next to SEPTA’s recent statement it can’t afford to pay additional death benefits to families of workers who died of COVID-19.