EVEN EMBATTLED REVENUE DIRECTOR GOT A SEVEN PERCENT PAY BUMP
The fat cats in South Carolina state government just got a little bit fatter … even though the Palmetto State continues to lag further behind the rest of the nation in virtually every measurement that matters.
At a time when income levels in South Carolina continue to shrink, joblessness remains high, test scores are retreating and incompetence is running rampant – a legislative panel has approved pay raises of 7 percent for all agency heads. Meanwhile University heads will receive a 8 percent raise – including University of South Carolina president Harris Pastides, who recently received a $125,000 raise that brought his total salary to $724,000 a year.
Many agency heads already received an automatic 3 percent raise in the FY 2012-13 budget by virtue of their status as state employees. These raises will supplement their salaries even further.
Even S.C. Department of Revenue (SCDOR) director James Etter – whose agency just coughed up 3.8 million Social Security numbers, nearly 400,000 credit and debit card numbers and tax information for up to 650,000 South Carolina businesses in the largest state-level security breach ever – received a raise of seven percent.
Shocking …
The raises were approved by the S.C. Agency Head Salary Commission – which is led by powerful Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman (RINO-Florence). Also on the panel? S.C. Sen. Wes Hayes (RINO-York), Sen. Billy O’Dell (RINO-Abbeville), Sen. Robert Ford (D-Charleston), Rep. Liston Barfield (RINO-Horry), Rep. Leon Howard (D-Richland), Rep. Michael Pitts (RINO-Laurens) and Rep. B.R. Skelton (RINO-Pickens).
Incidentally, Hayes and Skelton voted to approve the raises less than a week after fending off electoral challenges from petition candidates.
The raises were justified by a taxpayer-funded study prepared by the Philadelphia-based Hay Group – which recommended that these bureaucrats be paid salaries comparable to their counterparts in the private sector.
Really?
We are frankly sick unto death of people telling us that government bureaucrats need to make salaries that are “comparable to their counterparts in the private sector.”
Why? Because if an agency has “counterparts in the private sector” then it is clearly performing a non-core function – one that is duplicating work being done more efficiently without taxpayer resources.
These raises are unconscionable given the poor performance of our state government – and the income shrinkage being experienced by our citizens.
Accordingly, we call on every single agency head who was awarded a salary supplement by this committee to not only refuse these ill-gotten gains, but to insist that the money be placed into a taxpayer rebate fund.
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34 comments
And the surprise here is???
Frankly, I’m surprised they only got 7%.
yawn………..you will never ever stop this from goin on. I think it is unconscionable for FITS to say people do NOT deserve a raise. Who the hell are you ?
You will never ever get the world to do your biddding. People like government and want to make a living working in government. So fucking what??!!
Where in the budget was this appropriated? Why did we not pick this up before the elections? What committee and who voted for this increase?
The bad thing about the agency heads getting raises although they weren’t qualified for the jobs in the first place they had to have retired general be hind their names. Ugh!
“People like government and want to make a living working in government. So fucking what??!!”
And that is the sheeplike mentality that is part of the problem today.
no surprise, people just need to be aware of this. I voted write-in instead of Huge Leatherman
Those slurping sounds you hear are the pigs sucking on the teats of the taxpayers.
There are NO JOBS that are comparable to these in the “private sector”!!!
Of course there are, corporate executives give themselves bonuses and raises all of the time in the private sector, even when shit has hit the fan. Does no one remember the bailouts?
The statement was that there are no comperable jobs in the private sector, not that there are no comperable actions in the private sector. You are comparing apples and hammers.
Agency heads are executive positions. There are plenty of examples of executives from large companies taking leadership roles within agencies and vice versa.
There’s no “private sector” version of the Department of Revenue, but an executive is an executive nonetheless.
That’s your explanation of your personal opinion that there are comperable jobs in the private sector. Had you posted that, it would have made some sense, although some may still disagree with you. Instead, you posted the unrelated comment about bonuses and raises in the private sector. Again, that has nothing to do with what BM posted.
In the middle of a Severe and lenghty Recession, this should RESONATE…People loathe this type of entitlement…
But Leatherman (who calls himself a Republican) is untouchable because people in the Pee Dee, where there is a Strong democrat mentality, simply don’t get it…
It’s (RINOS are) rampant all over the state…
You are making sense, T!
sorry Big T but your opinions do not count since OBama’s re-election. Go fart in the wind, you gasbag.
Simple….look at election totals. Then move in X amount of people in district, register to vote, vote the scum out, then move on to another district.
Check out the legislative salaries. They are so out of hand that there is no turning back. Thanks to all the fiscal conservatives in the State House.
Big money for the higher ups, bread crumbs for the rest of the state employees.
Now you see what big government can do. I thought our republic tried to avoid an aristocracy over the peasants, you know checks and balances, elections, small government. This is just the beginning. To be born into their ilk assures a spot on the state retirement system with police protection such as fixing tickets, dropping charges.
Man, you ugly!
And Skelton used every trick and legal maneuver in the book to keep a legitimate candidate from going to Columbia in his place.
“We are frankly sick unto death of people telling us that government bureaucrats need to make salaries that are ‘comparable to their counterparts in the private sector.’
Why? Because if an agency has ‘counterparts in the private sector’ then it is clearly performing a non-core function – one that is duplicating work being done more efficiently without taxpayer resources.”
Not that I am defending the argument, but I don’t think the argument is that there are literal counterparts in the private sector. Thus, it’s not really valid to say the individuals in question are “performing non-core functions” that are “duplicating work being done more efficiently without taxpayer resources.”
In other words, and using the example from the article, what private sector job does the same work as the SCDOR Director? There are people with the same job skills, perhaps, who work in the same general field. But is there really a job in the private sector that is doing what SCDOR does, and is a duplication?
Nonetheless, the raises may very well be questionable considering the current economic circumstances in SC. Perhaps some are warranted (they should really be taken case-by-case), but it seems likely the majority are not.
No shame, no embarrassment, no conscience.
Fits
Double check your claim the agency heads also got the 3 percent raise given other state employees in July. Don’t think that’s right.
It is correct
Joe Blow, you are correct. Across-the-board increases do not apply to Agency Heads. Only the Agency Head Salary Commission can adjust the salary of an Agency Head.
There is no way on God’s green earth that Lillian McBride could make nearly $ 87,000 “in the private sector.”
most of the agency heads are headed toward retirement and “public service” usually finishes off a career in the private sector where they’ve outworn their welcome. it amounts to payola like the rest of our corrupt state > if one of Leatherman’s constituents has a problem at DOR he makes a phone call to Etter and the problem goes away. in the DOR audit world it’s called “no change” and that’s no pun intended!
Public employee were over compensated…under Wills (Rhino) rules………….FBI must be involved? Right?
When Folks was a part of Mark Sanfor’s regime, I wonder how much of Folks’ salary or pay raises were donated to a “taxpayer rebate fund”. Typical hypocrite.
I don’t think Will is saying that every single government position can be done by the private sector. Governor, as well as legislators, judges, and many other positions–including subordinate staff for those offices–do need to be handled by positions created by government. Those positions also should be compensated with revenue generated through various mechanisms, including taxes.
Simply receiving a paycheck for a government position does not automatically make Will a hypocrite. If he states the position he once held should not be compensated through revenue generated by the government, or should not be compensated at the level he was compensated, then you might have a point, but I am not aware of him stating such a view.
Similarly, you also are presuming Will got a raise or raises during his tenure with Sanford, and that his position is that all raises for government employees, at all times, are inappropriate. Again, I don’t think he is saying that. But if he did receive a raise or raises, then you might have a slight point, based on this article.
However, raises are likely appropriate at certain times in Will’s eyes. Otherwise, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to work for the government, whether the position is necessary or not, if we roll back salaries to the point of when each position was originally established.
I’m not saying Will is definitely not a hypocrite, but I do question calling him one based on your explanation.
The salaries of those in government should be decided by those who are supposed to be in charge, yet are not because of their 1)lack of knowledge 2)lack of concern or 3)willingness to be dominated….those who are supposed to be in charge are “We the People.”
Sadly, we keep electing these people to office and then are surprised by the crap that they do and the crap that they get away with.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all set our salaries like these bums?
I find it amazing that any executive at the Department of Employment and Workforce that has worked/been employed there for less than 5 years is considered deserving of a pay increase. For the most part none of them, Director and all his Assistant Executive Directors, still don’t have a clue about the actual process of an Unemployment claim. Sitting upstairs in the newly furnished offices dreaming up reports to measure how much work is being done is wasting the reporters time and the one who tries to figure out what those numbers mean time too. No two claims are alike, every single one is different and you cannot measure productivity like piece goods. The whole place is being shoved down the tubes under the new regime, seems like the job qualifications for females is wearing stilettos, short skirts and batting your eyelashes at the General or one of his retired buddies that now direct “Camp Dew”. For males the qualifications are Military service or shoe shining. This general Turner is bad news for the agency. He is an egotistical character that even when honoring a group of people for their service can only speak passionately about himself. The workers/enlisted men and women are barely squeaking by on their salaries, the 3% raise was the first across the board raise in 7 years at DEW and the cost increase of Insurance ate most of that up. Morale is at an all time low in the halls at “Camp Dew”, every soul wondering if they will be in the next group of The General’s cutbacks. Walking in each morning and getting slapped in the face with a big flat screen with a slide show of Turner, a trophy case filled with DEW merchandise not made in America they want you to wear proudly. Seems like priority one is not putting South Carolinian s back to work but enhancing the Generals image of himself.