From the Department of Executive Hypocrisy:
[img_assist|nid=55054|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=60]Gov. Walker not only just cut the annual wages and benefits of most state employees by thousands of dollars apiece, and not only is he now proposing to hold those employees at that crappy level for the next two years, he also clearly thinks the hard-working, ultra-efficient, super-effective guy who's Wisconsin governor (that would be him, as defined by him) deserves a significant pay raise -- a 5.4 percent raise, in fact. Oh, and some extra scratch for legislators and his lieutenant governor and all those other elected state officials, too.
Hey, chill out! Scotty made some tough decisions! He and his pals deserve to be rewarded, just like those business CEOs who lay off workers, outsourcing their jobs, and then giving themselves fat bonuses for the terrible, terrible ordeal of acting like being mean SOBs. Scotty's move will, of course, come at the expense of taxpayers and 40,000 or so other state employees who didn't quite fare so well. I wondered what Scotty would do with the extra seven grand a year or so he's putting into the budget for his job-- reimburse himself for those contributions to his state pension he promised to start picking up? Or maybe buy another American eagle painting to display in his rent-free govenror's mansion? (Oh, wait, he'd probably as usual lean on a campaign donor to pick up that cost).
Never mind that the economy is still struggling and the state is, at least in Scotty's estimation, "broke." It's time to parrrrrrrr-tea!
Now, it's only fair to point out that state law prevents the governor and the other lawmakers from cashing in on raises issued during their current terms in office. Scotty, of course, clearly intends to stick around the East Wing of the State Capitol for more than four years, though.
Here's a partial rundown of Gov. Fiscally Prudent's pay raise, as listed in the Walker administration's compensation plan for state employees. This extends the higher rate he inherited when he took the oath in January:
[img_assist|nid=88081|title=Exec pay|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=410|height=201]