Sunday, January 15, 2006

Pay Me Two Times, Baby

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been paying some of his top aides campaign salaries on top of their states salaries, The LA Times reported today. From the Times:

The combination boosted their overall annual compensation rates from the $120,000-to-$130,000 range to $180,000 to $190,000. That's more than the governor's job pays, although Schwarzenegger waives his $175,000 state salary.

The payments went to three of Schwarzenegger's most influential advisors: Patricia Clarey, who left her job as chief of staff in December; Rob Stutzman, who stepped down as communications director Friday; and Richard Costigan, who continues to serve as the governor's chief liaison to the Legislature.

Last week, Schwarzenegger's office confirmed that his new chief of staff, Susan P. Kennedy, would double as a campaign aide and be paid campaign funds in addition to her $131,000 government salary.

All the aides appear to be getting paid around five thousand a month for campaign activities. This is either dirty or dumb. California law prohibits doing campaign work on state time, so these guys are either breaking the law or they are working after work on Schwarzenegger's various campaigns.

Now, let's suppose they aren't breaking the law. If they were working an additional forty hours a week on the campaign that would break down to about $30 an hour, and I doubt these guys are putting in eighty hours a week. So, Schwarzenegger is probably paying closer to $100 dollars an hour for campaign work. That's pretty expensive, even for California.

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