Foolishness and Politicians
2011-06-16 - by
House Speaker Thom Tillis landed himself in a mess by picking the worst time on earth to pass out $30,000 a person pay raises to his staff.
The whole thing, given the timing, looks just plain crazy. On one hand Tillis is telling voters the legislature’s so flat-on-its-back-broke it has to cut budgets to the bone but, on the other hand, he raises his legal counsel’s pay from $110,000 to $140,000 and his chief-of-staff’s salary from $120,000 to $150,000 and hands other staffers raises of $12,000 each.
There’s also Speaker Tillis’ Joe Hackney problem. Hackney, the former Speaker, to Tillis and most Republicans was a wild-edged big spender, so when Tillis took office he announced – to applause and hurrahs – he was going to cut Hackney’s lavish spending on the Speaker’s staff 17%.
Then three months later Tillis quietly handed out raises and, of course, got caught red-handed by the News and Observer and, then, to compound foolishness with duplicity he fumbled, again, and boasted he was “still spending at a lower clip rate” than Hackney.
‘Clip rate’ was the right word and, of course, Tillis got caught in that fumble too.
The News and Observer did the math and promptly reported, Tillis’ payroll is ‘10% higher’ – not 17% lower – than Hackney’s.
Foolishness and Politicians
2011-06-16/
House Speaker Thom Tillis landed himself in a mess by picking the worst time on earth to pass out $30,000 a person pay raises to his staff.
The whole thing, given the timing, looks just plain crazy. On one hand Tillis is telling voters the legislature’s so flat-on-its-back-broke it has to cut budgets to the bone but, on the other hand, he raises his legal counsel’s pay from $110,000 to $140,000 and his chief-of-staff’s salary from $120,000 to $150,000 and hands other staffers raises of $12,000 each.
There’s also Speaker Tillis’ Joe Hackney problem. Hackney, the former Speaker, to Tillis and most Republicans was a wild-edged big spender, so when Tillis took office he announced – to applause and hurrahs – he was going to cut Hackney’s lavish spending on the Speaker’s staff 17%.
Then three months later Tillis quietly handed out raises and, of course, got caught red-handed by the News and Observer and, then, to compound foolishness with duplicity he fumbled, again, and boasted he was “still spending at a lower clip rate” than Hackney.
‘Clip rate’ was the right word and, of course, Tillis got caught in that fumble too.
The News and Observer did the math and promptly reported, Tillis’ payroll is ‘10% higher’ – not 17% lower – than Hackney’s.