Lawyers, doctors top state pay lists

LINCOLN -- Omaha Sen. Heath Mello’s suggestion that the Legislature freeze the salaries of state employees making at least $85,000 and cut back the salaries of everyone making more than $100,000 a year got no traction last week during Appropriations Committee budget-cutting discussions.

Tinkering with people’s pay may not be legal, even the pay of non-union employees, committee members were told.

The $100,000 cutback would have affected more than 270 state employees, 1.5 percent of those on the state payroll. (Mello’s proposal didn’t extend to the University of Nebraska, where more than 1,000 people make more than $100,000.)

State Auditor Mike Foley put an updated list of those state employees who make at least $100,000 on his Web site �” www.auditors.state.ne.us, click on “What’s New” �” over the weekend.

Doctors and judges make up the majority of the list.

The top paid state employee is Vijay Dewan, psychiatric director at the Lincoln Regional Center, who makes $216,785. In fact, five of the six state employees making more than $200,000 are psychiatrists. The one exception is a medical doctor �” medical director for the Department of Correctional Services.

Around 140 of those making over $100,000 are judges. At the top are Supreme Court judges, who make $135,880, a salary set by the Legislature.

Another 30 or so are doctors, plus a dentist and a nurse.

The state college system had more than 20 employees on the list, mostly top administrators, a few deans and three professors. The top paid person in the system is Chancellor Stanley Carpenter ($197,004).

Two members of the governor’s staff are on the list, with Larry Bare, his chief of staff, at $132,634.

Gov. Dave Heineman made the list, too, with a salary of $105,000, set by the Legislature. (Heineman vetoed a bill giving him a raise in 2006 and the Legislature overrode his veto.)

The legislative branch has at least six employees on the list, with veteran Clerk Patrick O’Donnell at the top ($154,294).

Senators are not on the list. Their salary of $12,000 is set in the constitution by the voters. However, the 49 are considering reducing their per diem rates (paid when they are in session). The change means senators living more than 50 miles from the State Capitol would get $109 daily to cover expenses while the Legislature is in session, instead of $116. Those living closer would get $39 instead of $46. The per diem rates are based on federal per diems.

Most of the rest on the highly paid list are agency directors, some engineers and information technology staff and attorneys working for Attorney Gen. Jon Bruning. Bruning himself makes $95,000 and was not on the list.

In fact, the governor is the only constitutional officer whose salary tops $100,000. Auditor Foley’s salary is $85,000, as are the secretary of state’s and treasurer’s.

Mello explained why he picked the two numbers.

Someone who makes $85,000 a year can take a salary freeze without that much difficulty, he said.

And in difficult fiscal times it’s not out of bounds to request people who make that kind of money ($100,000) to take a pay cut, he said.

A few state agencies, such as the Postsecondary Coordinating Commission, have bypassed any raises for the two-year budget period. But most state employees and agency heads got a 2.9 percent pay raise in July and expect another 2.5 percent next July.

Another Appropriations Committee member, Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff, expressed some frustration with highly paid employees’ attitude. He told some agency heads that he was disappointed none of them had considered taking a salary cut.

“You are unwilling to say, ‘We are going to share this pain. We are willing to give up 1 percent or 2 percent or 3 percent’” at a time when many state agencies will be looking at furloughs or layoffs, he said during budget hearings last week.

“I’m a little bit disappointed in that aspect. It does not send the right message to people who might be furloughed or people whose families might be completely disrupted (by layoffs),” he said.

In other states, legislators and governors have looked at pay cuts. At least two have put pay cuts in law. The Delaware budget includes a 2.5 percent pay decrease for state employees, and in Hawaii lawmakers passed a 5 percent pay cut through 2011 for the governor, lieutenant governor, department directors, judges and legislators.

Reach Nancy Hicks at (402) 473-7250 or nancy.hicks@lee.net.