Hello Taipei: Speaker Wills “Concerned” About Lottery Salaries
House Speaker Robbie Wills weighed in today on the lottery salaries all the way from the Hello Kitty Room at the Grand Hi-Lai Hotel in Taipei Koahsiung, Taiwan. (Okay, I don’t know if he is actually staying in the Hello Kitty Room but he is at the Grand Hi-Lai Hotel and they do have a Hello Kitty Room so how could I resist that opportunity.) I asked Speaker Wills if he had any comment and he directed me to his blog where he released the following statement:
“I’m concerned that the high salaries are eroding public confidence in the lottery. The Legislature set up the Lottery Commission to be independent and operate in the same way as the most sucessful (sic) loteries (sic) in the country. However, it’s critical in this business model for the Commission to actively oversee the management of the lottery and ensure not only sound business practices, but that the lottery focus on providing scholarships for Arkansas’s students. I applaud the Commissioners for stepping in to require a vote of the Commission for salaries over $80,000.”
This is sort of a turn around for Wills who previously defended the $324,000 salary for Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue when he was first hired tweeting that the salary “sounds fair” and “If he gets results it will be worth it.” Wills writes on his blog that his previous defense was only for Passailaigue and not “the lottery Vice President and Security Director salaries.”
You may wonder why legislators did not raise this question back during the session. Actually they did. Many legislators along with Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter were concerned that the lottery bill gave too much latitude to the Lottery Commission to set high salaries. And who was there to assure us this would not be the case? Robbie Wills.
“The most that this person would receive under any circumstance would be somewhere around $350,000. We don’t think it’s going to be anywhere near that to get the right person for (Lottery Director,)” Wills told KTHV. “But we wanted to have the commission to have some flexibility, but have a cap in place. But they can’t pay anymore than the set salary without legislative approval. So we feel like the appropriate safeguards are there.”
I will say I am glad to hear the Gov. Beebe and Speaker Wills have finally joined the majority of Arkansans who are concerned about the salaries but my question to them is what do they intend to do about it.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I’m pretty sure a few months ago The Arkansas Project had a pic of a robot portraying Robbie’s relationship to the Gov…sounds like he’s just falling in line again. An android is exactly what we need as Speaker…
July 17th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Jerry Cox of Family Council here in Arkansas told the legislature this would happen and they didn’t listen. He is keeping a running total of salaries on Jerry’s Blog.
July 17th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Jason, as usual, an amazing blog post. Giving credit to the Lt. Gov. is not an easy thing to do for some of us.
It’s good to see that Wills is finally caving to the will of the people on this (assuming he does something about it). I think the attention you paid to the matter is in no small part incentivizing Speaker Wills to do the right thing.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Why the (sic) after “lotteries?”
July 17th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Wes – Thanks. Robbie misspelled it on his blog that I was quoting from but then my spellchecker caught it and corrected it. I have changed it back to the correct quote with the word misspelled. Which is not a slam against Robbie, I cna’t spel worth a lik.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Isn’t all of this Halter’s fault for being the biggest cheerleader for the lottery? I’m holding him responsible.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Halter cannot have it both ways…he insisted and pushed the lottery through and now that it’s here he’s concerned with salaries. Let me get this straight…he introduced another form of gambling into Arkansas and now he’s upset that it’s corrupted. It’s your fault, Halter, don’t wine now!
July 17th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Barbara – I think there is plenty enough blame to spread around. And I have no doubt folks will be speading it.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I would like to echo what Ann said. Jerry Cox and Family Council were all over this during the session and no one listened. Now, all of a sudden, legislators are shocked and concerned. All of this trouble could have been avoided, but alas, our elected leaders only get really worried when their necks are on the line.
July 17th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
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July 17th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
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