SALON

Friday, Apr 20, 2012 6:45 PM UTC

Wis. governor reinstated bonuses despite shortfall

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Wis. governor reinstated bonuses despite shortfallIn this April 17, 2012, photo Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in Springfield, Ill. An analysis of data by The Associated Press shows Walker quietly reinstated a program to give merit raises and bonuses to over 200 state workers even as he preached cost-cutting and pushed through a law reducing most public workers' pay and eliminating their union rights. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)(Credit: AP)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker quietly reinstated a program to give merit raises and bonuses to some state workers even as he preached cost-cutting and pushed through a law reducing most public workers’ pay and eliminating their union rights.

An analysis of data The Associated Press obtained through an open records request showed Wisconsin agencies have handed out more than $765,000 in bonuses and merit raises this year to nearly 220 employees.

The money was awarded under a program former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle suspended but Walker reinstated last year. The money is meant to reward stellar performance, but it comes as the state faces a $143 million shortfall and after thousands of state workers took pay cuts through provisions in the collective bargaining law requiring them to contribute more to their pensions and health care.

Walker, who faces a June 5 recall election prompted by anger over the collective bargaining law, prides himself on fiscal restraint.

The Republican governor wasn’t available for comment Friday. His spokesman, Cullen Werwie, referred questions to Walker’s top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, who said the governor brought the program back because he felt it was important to mirror the private sector and provide rewards for outstanding work.

“It is a tool for a manager to go in and say this person truly set themselves apart,” Huebsch said.

Agency managers must find the money within their own budgets to cover the compensation, he added; the state budget doesn’t provide money specifically for merit compensation within the agencies.

Still, Huebsch said he warned agencies run by secretaries appointed by the governor to hold off on issuing bonuses or raises at least until the fiscal year ends June 30. Most did, but the Department of Workforce Development gave raises to two workers, one in January and one in April.

Huebsch said managers asked for special permission to make the moves because they were afraid the workers were about to leave for the private sector.

According to the AP analysis, 218 employees across nine agencies received raises or bonuses adding up to $765,195 between Jan. 1 and Tuesday.

The state Department of Justice, which couldn’t find enough money to fully fund services for sexual assault victims last year, was the biggest spender, giving out nearly $300,000 to 94 workers.

Assistant Attorney General Maria Lazar, who defended Walker’s collective bargaining law in an open meetings challenge and has handled the state’s defense of Republican redistricting legislation, got a $1,000 bonus and a $1.50-an-hour raise in March, bumping her salary by more than $3,000 to $104,730.

Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John, who defended the collective bargaining law in front of the state Supreme Court, got a $2.51-an-hour raise in March that adds up to more than $5,000 per year and brings his pay to $134,307.

Thirty-seven DNA analysts, meanwhile, got raises worth $158,000.

The Justice Department handed out raises even after it warned budget cuts had forced it to reduce grants from its Sexual Assault Victim Services program by 42.5 percent. Walker later rescinded those cuts amid an outcry from service providers.

DOJ Executive Assistant Steve Means defended the awards, saying the money came from not filling positions and the agency can’t shift money from salaries to cover other expenses. Raises and bonuses are crucial to retaining star performers like Lazar and St. John, he added.

“If people understood why we’re doing what we’re doing, I don’t think they’d be concerned about it. It’s a good use of limited resources,” Means said. “If Kevin St. John were to announce today he wanted to go work in private practice, he’d have at least a half-dozen law firms on the phone in 10 minutes offering him twice as much as he makes here.”

The University of Wisconsin System, meanwhile, also gave out nearly $300,000 in raises and bonuses. Five employees, including a power plant superintendent at UW-Milwaukee and a UW Extension human resources manager, each received $5,520 bonuses, the largest ones anyone in state government received.

The bonuses and raises come as the system absorbs a $250 million cut in the 2011-13 state budget as well as another $46 million in additional cuts this year. Tuition has gone up by at least 5.5 percent across system campuses.

System spokesman David Giroux said the merit awards enable the universities to retain stellar performers and rewarding a handful of the system’s 40,000 workers isn’t the reason for the tuition increases.

“You’re talking about people who have taken on additional responsibility and expanded work scope and in some cases getting competitive offers from elsewhere,” Giroux said. “It’s hanging on to the people we need to get the job done.”

More Todd Richmond.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
2872 points2873 points | 1447 comments
vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
886 points887 points | 439 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
135 points136 points | 42 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
24 points25 points | 13 comments
vote
Recent scandals are Whitewater redux, not Watergate
19 points20 points | 2 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations