It?s good to see that top aides to powerful Democratic
politicians can still find a lucrative home in the UNC system when they want to
move on. Governor Perdue?s budget director Charlie
Perusse will join incoming UNC president Tom Ross?s administration as the
vice president for finance in March.
Perusse is taking over from the retiring Ernie Murphrey, who
held the job for one year after replacing Rob Nelson, who retired in March of
this year. Nelson?s retirement
caught many off guard, and Murphrey seemed an odd choice to replace him, since
he struggled greatly with the job?s public appearance demands.
The uber-confident Perusse will have no such problems. He
has held the top financial slot in Perdue?s administration for two years, and
he was Governor Easley?s deputy budget director and, briefly, acting budget
director for the six years before that. (In other words, he is at least as much
an insider in the state?s Democratic machine as is Ross.)
His appointment raises a question: why does the top
financial official in the state?who oversees the Office of State Management and
Budget?get a whopping $77,000 annual raise when he leaves that position for the
UNC job, which deals with only 14 percent of the state budget? Shouldn?t the
bigger job have the bigger salary?
