Posted on 02/09/2015 6:50:23 AM PST by TurboZamboni
Until very recently, Minnesota law capped the salary for commissioners of state departments at 85 or 95 percent of the governor’s salary. A law passed in 2013 changed that cap to 133 percent, and now Gov. Mark Dayton has used that change to raise the salaries of most of his cabinet.
Overall, the higher salaries will cost taxpayers an additional $802,990 per year for the 27 affected positions. Dayton’s 2015 salary is $123,912, meaning the new maximum is $164,803. None of Dayton’s commissioners are earning that maximum, even after this year’s raises.
The previous highest salary earned by a commissioner was the $143,281 earned by Human Services commissioner Lucinda Jesson. Now she and five other commissioners will earn $154,992.
The biggest increase went to the chair of the Metropolitan Council, but that also reflected a change in the position from part-time to full-time.
Republican Rep. Roz Peterson, R-Lakeville, called the pay hikes “outrageous” since “take-home pay for families remains flat and some Minnesotans are still struggling to make ends meet.”
Veteran Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, said the move reeked of bad timing.
On Monday, a House panel is set to debate a proposal to quickly front more money for several urgent department needs, known as a deficiency bill.
“I think its extremely hypocritical when you come to the legislature for deficiency bills and then you have all this money to give away — there’s a real disconnect” Davids said.
But Dayton defended the increase as necessary to keep and retain top executives given competition from the private sector.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.twincities.com ...
A complete, in your face, insult to the taxpayers in Minnesota.
Dayton inherited his fortune, and then he married Alida Rockefeller. Although they later divorced. she still funds his political career.
Mark Dayton is not very bright and has never had to work in his life. He did, however, teach at a high school somewhere in New York after he completed his degree in education, but it was only for a short time.
He later was a one-term U S Senator, but was defeated by Norm Coleman.
16 years in Minnesota.
Then we took our Yankee money and moved south.
Why not? It’s just oligarchs and socialists doing what they do…
BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM
http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-minnesota-debt-clock.html
6. But the grand nostrum will be a public debt…
7. It must not be forgotten that the members of the legislative body are to have a deep stake in the game. This is an essential point, and happily is attended with no difficulty. A sufficient number, properly disposed, can alternately legislate and speculate, and speculate and legislate, and buy and sell, and sell and buy, until a due portion of the property of their constituents has passed into their hands to give them an interest against their constituents, and to ensure the part they are to act.
8. The ways in which a great debt, so constituted and applied, will contribute to the ultimate end in view are both numerous and obvious. (1) The favorite few, thus possessed of it, whether within or without the government, will feel the staunchest fealty to it, and will go through thick and thin to support it in all its oppressions and usurpations. (2) Their money will give them consequence and influence, even among those who have been tricked out of it. (3) They will be the readiest materials that can be found for a hereditary aristocratic order, whenever matters are ripe for one. (4) A great debt will require great taxes; great taxes, many taxgatherers and other officers; and all officers are auxiliaries of power.
11. As soon as sufficient progress in the intended change shall have been made, and the public mind duly prepared according to the rules already laid down, it will be proper to venture on another and a bolder step toward a removal of the constitutional landmarks.
Rules for Radicals? “No, Rules for Changing a Limited Republican Government into an Unlimited Hereditary One”…
http://www.constitution.org/cmt/freneau/republic2monarchy.htm
/Freneau
Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat
/Bastiat
I bet Target employees wish the Daytons would give them raises
Yes, when the private sector needs to find some top quality managerial talent, they always look first at underpaid political appointees.
What a country!!
The Dayton family no longer owns Target - or at least they sold it - maybe not all, but they are not in control of the corporation anymore.
It’s a good thing. The Daytons are a classic case of the cascading effect of inherited wealth upon the next generations. Often they are not ambitious and not willing to take responsibility for running a corporation. That is why so many of them are liberals.
Someone should publicly ask Mark Dayton why he “stores” his trust wealth in South Dakota, as opposed to helping with the cost of these outlandish raises.
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