High-dollar bonuses for executives at the Georgia Lottery Corp. seemed excessive to many during and after the Great Recession. And in fact, those bonuses have declined substantially in the past two years.
At the same time, however, many lottery execs have received sizable pay raises. One ranking executive, for example, watched his bonus plummet from about $28,000 in 2011 to $14,300 in 2012 to $4,600 in 2013. His salary went up a total of $50,000 a year during the same period.
The lottery pays for the state’s HOPE Scholarship and pre-kindergarten programs, and some legislators are asking why HOPE is being cut while lottery leaders get raises.
“We’ve cut back on paying for tuition, so kids and moms and dads are paying more, but we’re loading more into the pockets of people managing the fund,” said state Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans. “And then we have boards doing things like this, giving raises, giving huge payouts, it’s troubling. It’s troubling, to put it mildly.”
Read the full story at myajc.com.
About the Author
