Private sector salaries for publicly-funded jobs.
That’s the type of high-level payouts the Arkansas Lottery Commission is offering to potential candidates for the following 34 positions. According to the Lottery Commission’s new website, employees of Arkansas’ state-run lottery will be paid as follows:
Arkansas’ new lottery sheriff earns more than the head of the State Police Department.
That’s the latest news coming out of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. According to an article by Michael Wickline and Seth Blomeley, Governor Beebe is finally criticizing the exorbitant salaries lottery employers are receiving. In particular, Beebe does not agree with the lottery commission’s opinion that the lottery security director, Lance Huey, be paid over $115,000 per year–several thousand dollars more than the head of the State Police.
Not one lottery ticket has been sold, but a bunch of people are getting rich off of the Arkansas Lottery just the same.
Arkansas Lottery Commission Executive Director Ernie Passailaigue says David Barden, South Carolina Lottery official, has accepted an offer to serve as the lottery’s vice president of gambling operations. Barden will be paid $225,000 annually. Passailaigue earlier hired another South Carolina Lottery official, Ernestine Middleton, as the Arkansas Lottery’s vice president of administration. Middleton, who started work Thursday, also will be paid $225,000 a year. (more…)