Lottery Salaries Challenged

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Lottery Salaries Challenged

Special Report - June 5, 2008
One of the most lively discussions to take place during consideration of the state budget in the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday was an amendment by Rep. Pat Hurley (R-Randolph) to slash the salaries of North Carolina’s top lottery officials. Hurley’s amendment would have prohibited employees of the N.C. Lottery from being paid more than the governor. The current base salary of lottery director Tom Shaheen is $246,000, while the Governor Easley is paid $135,854. In the end, Rep. Hurley agreed to modify her amendment to call for a comprehensive study of salaries across state government. If the provision stays in the budget through its consideration by the House and Senate and ultimately the budget conference committee, then the Legislative Research Commission would then conduct a comprehensive study of state employee salaries and report their findings to the General Assembly before the 2009 Session.

Rep. Ty Harrell (D-Wake) offered an amendment to the budget on Wednesday that would give lottery employees the same pay raises as other state employees. The lottery commission had approved an average 5 percent pay raise, while the current version of the House budget would give state employees raises of 2.75 percent or $1,100 whichever is greater. This amendment was adopted on a unanimous vote.