Guess who got huge state raises?

Lawmakers lavish tax dollars on execs

Posted 7/21/21

We don’t believe government employees should take vows of poverty. Many are hardworking 1st responders and others who do needed work for us taxpayers.

But when lawmakers start handing out …

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Guess who got huge state raises?

Lawmakers lavish tax dollars on execs

Posted

We don’t believe government employees should take vows of poverty. Many are hardworking 1st responders and others who do needed work for us taxpayers.
But when lawmakers start handing out raises larger than the average income of the people who pay taxes, something questionable is going on.
Take the latest raise for the head of the Department of Transportation. This is the agency that is supposed to repair our crumbing roads and bridges with the higher gas taxes we pay.
Lawmakers have just given DOT boss Christy Hall an 18.6% raise of $46,768 to $298,000. Hall’s pay hike was on top of a $60,288 raise, or nearly 32%, she got in 2020.
That raise alone is more than the $45,438 income of the state’s average taxpayer.
Hall’s agency has been slow in repairing the state’s bad roads and bridges. Yet her department has received millions of dollars from the 12-cent-per-gallon hike in the gas taxes and increases in other vehicle taxes, Rick Brundrett of the SC Policy Council’s The Nerve newsletter reported.
New Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey will be paid $252,000. His predecessor Bobby Hitt was paid $199,857.
Of 23,328 state workers paid $50,000 or more, 455 were making at least $200,000.
This doesn’t include 17 state agencies, the House and Senate and utility Santee Cooper. 
Santee Cooper CEO Mark Bonsall’s salary is $1.1 million plus other benefits such as a maximum $250,000 performance bonus. No wonder electricity rates are so high.
Clemson University president James Clements’ total compensation last year was $965,677, including $607,381 from the university foundation. No wonder college tuition is so high.
Gov. Henry McMaster earns $106,078 and Lexington County residents Attorney General Alan Wilson, Comptroller Richard Eckstrom and Treasurer Curtis Loftis earn $92,007. We have to be getting a bargain there. 
We welcome your comments. Please email them to JerryBellune@yahoo.com

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