The voters of Arkansas need to know that every member of the Arkansas Legislature voted for the lottery law that allows lottery employees to receive such high salaries. The Arkansas House of Representatives stood and applauded after they passed the bill.
Ernie Passailaigue, former director of the South Carolina Lottery, hit the jackpot when he became director of the Arkansas Lottery at an annual salary of $324,000—third highest in the nation. Now he’s helping a couple of his friends from South Carolina hit it big in Arkansas too. Last week, the Arkansas Lottery Commission and the lottery legislative oversight committee gave Passailaigue the green light to hire two lottery vice-presidents, each at $225,000 a year. He has tapped David Barden, South Carolina’s $133,000-a-year director of marketing, and Ernestine Middleton, South Carolina’s $144,000-a-year internal operations director. (more…)
The other day when Max Brantley, editor of the ultra-liberal Arkansas Times, said I was right about how bad the lottery was going to be, I looked outside to see if any pigs were flying by. Was this the same Max Brantley whose paper just weeks ago referred to me as the most hated man in Arkansas? Yes, even Max gets it right once in a while—about the lottery that is.