The news is abuzz with talk of CEO pay and windfall profits among oil companies. Those profits, and the notion of domestic oil drilling, prompted this outburst from California Rep. Maxine Waters. (It should have been cause for her immediate dismissal from the House, but fell by the wayside in favor of more important matters, such as The Pound.)
With all the talk of profit and salaries, my question is simple: What about pay for public officials?
Some North Carolina state legislators have challenged the rather high (and taxpayer-funded) salaries of officials of the N.C. lottery.
The lottery?s executive director, Tom Shaheen, gets a base salary of $246,000 per year. The lottery commission has approved pay increases for its employees that are double the amount proposed for other state employees. And, apparently, it doesn?t want the General Assembly having a say in how large those raises are.
In all fairness, it does take some generous perks to attract the kind of talent that can convince citizens to bet their dollars on the stupid tax. The big bad truth: We’re paying these officials some hefty change so they can, in turn, bilk more money out of the population. A nice deal for them.
When I fill up at the pump, at least I get a product. If the odds were 146 million to one that the pump would dispense gas, I’d go elsewhere.
