This is an opinion column.
Former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, whose walk of shame ushered then-Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey into that mansion he once called home, caught unmitigated hell in 2016 when he rained cash on his cabinet members, giving four of them pay hikes of more than $70,000.
“It’s outrageous,” Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said at the time. “Indefensible.”
And it was. Those raises – not the total pay to those cabinet members but the raises alone – amounted to almost twice what the average Alabama worker made in a year.
Rep. Paul Beckman, R-Prattville, went farther than Orr. “It is criminal, and I repeat criminal …when someone at the ABC Board goes from $91,000 a year to ($164,419) as a pay raise, that’s criminal.”
Boy, have things changed.
Bentley may have handed out raises like rose emojis, but he ain’t got nothing on Gov. Kay Ivey, who has given huge raises to most of her 23 cabinet spots in her time in office.
The head of the ABC Board now makes $239,784, a 46% increase since Beckman called a raise for that job “criminal.”
When Ivey took over in 2017 the average cabinet salary was $151,607, according to listings that used to be, but are no longer included in the state’s Budget Fact Book. A few people made under $100,000, and only one, the head of Medicaid, made more than $200,000. Barely.
Now the average salary for Ivey’s cabinet is $218,103. That’s a difference of $66,496 on average per job and a $1.6 million increase. Payroll for the 23 cabinet members is more than $5 million.
Most of the increases have come since 2020. Over that period 14 of Gov. Ivey’s cabinet members received raises totaling more than $60,000 each, and 10 got bumps of more than $70,000. Human Resources Commissioner Nancy Buckner got an increase of more than $82,000, to land at $258,216.
Think about that. An Alabama teacher with a doctorate and 26 years experience makes $82,391 in a year. The median household income in Alabama is $59,674. A year. That’s the median, or the middle. That means half of Alabama households earn less in a year than Buckner got in raises.
Alabama state troopers, after a bump in pay, start off making $56,726. A year. And they face danger every day.
We know Alabamians have faced economic hardship – the state was among the top five hardest hit by inflation this year, according to Moody’s index. But while many Alabamians suffer, these increases for cabinet members outpaced inflation. Even adjusted for cost of living, ABC Board Administrator Curtis Stewart and Revenue Commissioner Vernon Barnett make more than twice what their jobs paid their predecessors 10 years ago.
No wonder the state wants to make these salaries harder to find.
AL.com’s Trish Crain earlier this year asked why Alabama no longer includes cabinet pay in its Budget Data Book, as it has for at least the past three governors. Legislative Services Agency Director Othni Lathram told her those salaries are not the type of information for which the book is intended.
I imagine not, because the intent seems clearer than the money. Can’t make things too transparent.
You can still look up all employee pay individually on the state’s check register, and AL.com reporter Mike Cason did just that for cabinet members for the current year. He found that Finance Director Bill Poole, Transportation Director John Cooper, Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar and DHR Commissioner Buckner were the highest paid cabinet members, with salaries of $258,216.
The lowest paid are Insurance Commissioner Mark Fowler, Senior Services Commissioner Jean Brown, EMA Director Jeff Smitherman, Alabama Guard Adjutant General David Pritchett, Minority Affairs Director Stacia Robinson, Tourism Director Lee Sentell and Early Childhood Education Secretary Jan Hume.
Of course the Early Childhood Education Secretary – Hume – makes the least of all of them. She makes $161,160. Still, that’s just $2,000 below that amount that, under Bentley, was called “criminal.”
Back in 2000, for reference, the transportation director made $100,000 and the ADO director made a little more than that, but most Alabama Cabinet members made $71,235. That amounts to $130,801 in today’s dollars, far below the $218,103 we now pay.
The expectations of public officials, shall we say, were different.
The governor’s office in July told Cason that Ivy – who likes to claim an “unwavering commitment to fiscal responsibility,” stood by the raises because her people deserved them. And I’m sure they did.
In the same way people on fixed incomes need an expansion of Medicaid, and not just raises for its boss. In the same way working people need an increase in minimum wage, in a state that has no minimum wage law but has blocked cities from setting a higher minimum wage within their city limits.
In the same way hungry kids need to eat to learn, in a state so committed to bootstraps that it at first refused federal money to give them a free lunch.
But you know how it is. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Unless you work for the governor.
John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer winner.
Here, from Mike Cason, is the current list of cabinet salaries:
- ABC Board Administrator Curtis Stewart, $239,784, a 36% increase over what predecessor Mac Gipson was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- State Banking Department Superintendent Mike Hill, $239,784, up 33% over what Hill was receiving in the same position in Nov. 2021.
- Secretary of the Department of Commerce Ellen McNair, $239,784, up 40% over what her predecessor, Greg Canfield, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship, $239,784, up 39% over what he was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, $242,000, up 43% from what his predecessor, Jeff Dunn, received in fiscal year 2021.
- Secretary of Early Childhood Education Jan Hume, $161,160, down 1.5% from what her predecessor, Barbara Cooper, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Economic and Community Affairs Director Kenneth Boswell, $239,784, up 39% from what Boswell was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Emergency Management Agency Director Jeff Smitherman, $177,888, up 17% from what his predecessor, Brian Hastings, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Finance Director Bill Poole, $258,216, up 17% from what Poole was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Human Resources Commissioner Nancy Buckner, $258,216, up 39% from what Buckner was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Secretary of Information Technology Daniel Urquhart, $201,504, up 17% from what his predecessor, Marty Redden, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Insurance Commissioner Mark Fowler, $177,888, down 4% from what his predecessor, Jim Ridling, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington, $201,504, up 17% from what Washington was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Hal Taylor, $242,760, up 39% from what Taylor was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar, $258,216, up 17% from what Azar was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell, $201,504, up 17% from what she was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Alabama National Guard Adjutant General David Pritchett, $177,888, up 17% from what his predecessor, Adjutant General Sheryl Gordon, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Alabama Office of Minority Affairs Director Stacia Robinson, $177,888, up 26% from what her predecessor, Nichelle Nix, was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Bureau of Pardons and Paroles Director Cam Ward, $239,784, up 36% from what he was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Revenue Commissioner Vernon Barnett, $239,784, up 39% from what he was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Senior Services Commissioner Jean W. Brown, $177,888, up 20% from what she was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Tourism Director Lee Sentell, $165,144, up 17% from what he was receiving in Nov. 2021.
- Department of Transportation Director John Cooper, $258,216, up 32% from what he was receiving in Nov. 2021.
