The Tolbert Report

Cory Allen Cox is an attorney in private practice in Little Rock. He previously was the director of the Arkansas Insurance Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. Cox often writes for more minor political blogs in the state but today was able to land a guest post on the Tolbert Report.

Governor Beebe recently noted that the recent controversy on lottery salaries undermines public confidence in the lottery and its staff. The governor should stop and think about what these high salaries do to the morale of the state employees that are working at well below rates of pay in the private sector. It is easy to make fun of state employees as lazy do nothings, as glorified welfare recipients doing little more than what is absolutely necessary to keep their job. Regardless if that is true or not, what is certain is that there are many state employees whose jobs are essential to the daily lives of Arkansans. Money for higher education is a good thing, it is in no way essential in the way that police, child welfare workers, and prison guards are.

Considering that the recently enacted state employee pay plan study did little or nothing to eliminate disparities in pay between the public sector and the private sector, many state workers must feel insulted by the high lottery salaries. There was never any explicit promise to eliminate disparities with the pay plan, but salary increases were denied by DF&A during the last legislative session with the pay plan cited as the reason. In fact, state employees have lost both their cost of living increases and merit increases this year. The net result of the pay plan study is a reduction in pay.

Lottery commission employees and state employees are paid from two different sources of revenue and it’s tempting to argue that because of that, you cannot compare the two, especially seeing that the lottery is expected to generate millions. Many state employees are paid from revenues generated through special funds. For example, the Insurance Department’s employees are paid through assessments levied on insurance companies, including multi-national giants who misplace more money in a year than the Arkansas lottery will generate in 10.

Even if the salaries of lottery employees and other state employees are mutually exclusive, Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue has linked them by defending his hires by claiming the salaries are compensation for talent and that if you want the best, then you must pay for the best., i.e., you get what you pay for. Using his rationale the average state employee working below the average salary of a comparable private sector employee is not simply not a good employee and not worth being paid as such. Combine those comments with the feeling of being cheated by the pay plan study, and a lot of state employees are feeling a little jilted.