Yesterday, a Charlotte Observer editorial asked, “Have the Easleys lost touch with the people?,” It may be more appropriate to ask whether they were ever in touch with the people, but that is a discussion for another day.
My beef with the editorial surrounds the question of Mary Easley’s 88 percent pay raise. The editorial argues,
1. The pay raise should not come as a surprise because she’s accomplished in law, at teaching and at administration.
2. The only real problem with the pay raise is that the public makes a connection between the pay raise and the “lavish ‘cultural’ missions the First Lady took abroad on behalf of the state…”
3. Easley’s salary is consistent with salaries paid other administrators with similar qualifications and duties.
Would the public be perturbed about Mary Easley’s generous pay raise if the stories about the “lavish ‘cultural’ missions” were not in the news? I think so. While the Observer’s editors are comfortable with the explanation surrounding the pay raise, the public is clearly not satisfied. Taxpayers correctly perceive that the “she deserved it” explanation is phooey.
