An N&O article Saturday noted the raises House Speaker Thom Tillis gave some of his staff in the last few months.
The article was a follow-up to a Tillis and Phil Berger interview with editorial writers and reporters in January, where they discussed their intent to have lower staff costs than their predecessors'.
Tillis said he would come in at 17 percent lower than Joe Hackney, and Berger said he would cut 10 percent from Marc Basnight's employee costs. What they said about staff salaries is in the bottom half of the January article.
Here's a comparison of House Speaker staff salaries. Senate details will be in a future post.
Tillis' staff as of June 7, 2011, total compensation.
Abigail Blackwell, Administrative Assistant, $30,000
Charles Duckett, Director of Admin. Boards and Commissions, $79,170
Bruce Goforth, Policy Adviser, $62,880
Christopher Hayes, Policy Adviser, $82,000
Amy Hobbs, Policy Adviser, $82,000
Susan Horne, Assistant for Constituent Services, $51,480
Jason Kay, General Counsel, $140,000
Wanda Kay, House Caucus Assistant, $40,000
Michael Luethy, $70,000
Dodie Renfer, Director of Operations, $70,000
Jordan Shaw, Director of Communications, $65,000
Katherine Sullivan, Policy Assistant, $36,000
Charles Thomas, Chief of Staff, $150,000
Rhonda Todd, Executive Assistant, $71,071.12
Renee Weaver, House Staff Clerk, $35,525
Tillis total, $1,065,126.12
Joe Hackney staff compensation, July 1, 2010.
This accounts for people employed by former House Speaker Joe Hackney on July 1, 2010. A direct comparison with the Tillis payroll is difficult because Hackney had part-timers who worked for a few hours a day or a few days a week.
The Saturday story assumed all worked full time, and as a result, the Hackney total is higher than the actual.
Nonpartisan General Assembly staff said in January that Hackney's payroll came to about $807,000 last year when the office was fully staffed.
Zadia Brown, Assistant for Constituent Services, $53,841
Kathryn Bruckner, Administrative Assistant, $30,000
Lesley Cates, Assistant for Budget, $51,687.36
Laura DeVivo, Senior Policy Adviser, $134,387.16
Emily Freeman, Executive Assistant, $82,940
William Holmes, Communications Director, $84,255
Yancey Huie, Tax Counsel, $131,172.52
Robin Johnson, General Counsel, $136,917.40
Andrew Korostynski, Legislative Assistant, $30,116
Eugene LaVange, Director, Boards and Commissions, $83,600
Meredith Swindell, Executive Assistant, $52,568.52
Susan Buehlmann, Reception, $33,801.90
Lucille Thompson, Assistant, Boards and Commissions, $64,587.50
Hackney total, $969,874.36
Corrections: Goforth's first name. (First name is Daniel, goes by Bruce.) Updates Renfer and Sullivan titles.
Comments
salaries
June 14, 2011 - 8:18am — orriclMr. Kay must be an excellent attorney since he's doing the job of two lawyers on former Speaker Hackney's staff.
Staff salaries
June 13, 2011 - 9:29pm — QtheduckOh my! but Tillis says NC is broke and MUST cut education! My $20,000 a year as a TA is but a drop in the bucket compared to these salaries (and I'm not complaining!) Just hoping I will be allowed to continue my job. Whatever, Mr. Tillis, whatever.
Republican math
June 13, 2011 - 8:42pm — ironduffDon't you just love the new Republican math we are seeing? So Tillis tells us his staff salaries will come in 17 percent lower than Hackney's staff salaries. But lo and behold, they look to be coming in more that 26 percent higher than what Hackney acutally paid his staff last year.
Republicans tell us we're in hard times and everyone, particularly the public schools, must shoulder the burden of staying out of debt. I guess their idea of a burden is carrying all the moneybags home for themselves.
Just makes you want to vomit.
WTF???????
June 13, 2011 - 8:25pm — Isaac136Good LORD!!!!!!!!!!!
If we ever wondered whether the "leadership" were out of touch with constituents, here's the worst confirmation we could receive.
UGH. BRUCE GOFORTH? A has-been HACK who switched parties just to get a job being paid for doing NOTHING?
Sickening. This is just sickening.