CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Having separate branches of government, and two houses of the Legislature, creates all kinds of fun and friction around here, particularly when it comes to pay raises.
At the moment, county commissioners and other county officers are pushing the Legislature for big raises (SB168, HB4405) -- a year after the Legislature approved a big judicial pay raise package that included $7,500 increases for county magistrates.
Likewise last year, when state and public school employees got 2 percent pay raises, legislative staffers groused that they were left behind (since their pay is set by resolution, not by legislation).
This year, when schoolteachers and state employees are being advised that there's no money for raises, the House and Senate have adopted pay resolutions giving pay increases to many legislative staffers -- in the case of one house, some fairly sizable raises.
The House of Delegates resolution includes no increases for per-diem employees who work during the session, and gives full-time salaried employees the same 2 percent raise that other state employees got last year, capped at a maximum of $1,200 (same as the state employees).
The Senate, meanwhile, gave small raises to per-day employees, although the most common raise was just $1 a day -- but gave some nice raises to salaried staff.
For example, Ray Ratliff, counsel to Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, got a salary increase from $86,178 to $89,190.
Steve McElroy, who was a state Nursing Association lobbyist before becoming senior assistant to the president last year, went from $45,000 to $55,000.
Meanwhile, media specialist (no matter how you fancy-up the title, a flack is still a flack) and administrative assistant to the president Lynette Maselli got a promotion and salary hike from $34,992 to $50,000.
Longtime Judiciary Committee counsel Rita Pauley moved to the newly created post of chief counsel to Majority Leader John Unger, D-Berkeley, and went from a salary of $83,640 to $88,640.
The new pay resolution shows some new full-time salaried positions in the Senate, Tim Ward, as constituent outreach specialist at a salary of $30,000.
Unger said overall, the total budget for Senate staff is about the same as last year, in part because a number of more senior staffers retired or took positions in the Tomblin administration, and the replacements are at the lower end of the salary scale for those positions.
For instance, when Rick Winnell retired last year as assistant clerk of the Senate, his salary was $59,415. His successor, Lee Cassis, has a $50,000 salary.
"We're trying to get people into positions where they best fit, and make sure their salaries are competitive, so we can keep people," Unger said.
*
Of course, the dollar amount that drew the most interest last week was Tish Chafin's announcement that she is loaning her campaign for state Supreme Court $1 million.
While such self-financing of a campaign is unsettling, in some ways it's preferable to judicial candidates fundraising from lawyers who may have cases before them at some point.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Having separate branches of government, and two houses of the Legislature, creates all kinds of fun and friction around here, particularly when it comes to pay raises.
At the moment, county commissioners and other county officers are pushing the Legislature for big raises (SB168, HB4405) -- a year after the Legislature approved a big judicial pay raise package that included $7,500 increases for county magistrates.
Likewise last year, when state and public school employees got 2 percent pay raises, legislative staffers groused that they were left behind (since their pay is set by resolution, not by legislation).
This year, when schoolteachers and state employees are being advised that there's no money for raises, the House and Senate have adopted pay resolutions giving pay increases to many legislative staffers -- in the case of one house, some fairly sizable raises.
The House of Delegates resolution includes no increases for per-diem employees who work during the session, and gives full-time salaried employees the same 2 percent raise that other state employees got last year, capped at a maximum of $1,200 (same as the state employees).
The Senate, meanwhile, gave small raises to per-day employees, although the most common raise was just $1 a day -- but gave some nice raises to salaried staff.
For example, Ray Ratliff, counsel to Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, got a salary increase from $86,178 to $89,190.
Steve McElroy, who was a state Nursing Association lobbyist before becoming senior assistant to the president last year, went from $45,000 to $55,000.
Meanwhile, media specialist (no matter how you fancy-up the title, a flack is still a flack) and administrative assistant to the president Lynette Maselli got a promotion and salary hike from $34,992 to $50,000.
Longtime Judiciary Committee counsel Rita Pauley moved to the newly created post of chief counsel to Majority Leader John Unger, D-Berkeley, and went from a salary of $83,640 to $88,640.
The new pay resolution shows some new full-time salaried positions in the Senate, Tim Ward, as constituent outreach specialist at a salary of $30,000.
Unger said overall, the total budget for Senate staff is about the same as last year, in part because a number of more senior staffers retired or took positions in the Tomblin administration, and the replacements are at the lower end of the salary scale for those positions.
For instance, when Rick Winnell retired last year as assistant clerk of the Senate, his salary was $59,415. His successor, Lee Cassis, has a $50,000 salary.
"We're trying to get people into positions where they best fit, and make sure their salaries are competitive, so we can keep people," Unger said.
*
Of course, the dollar amount that drew the most interest last week was Tish Chafin's announcement that she is loaning her campaign for state Supreme Court $1 million.
While such self-financing of a campaign is unsettling, in some ways it's preferable to judicial candidates fundraising from lawyers who may have cases before them at some point.
Also, making the announcement up front is refreshing, as opposed to candidates like Bill Maloney last year, who wrote loans to his campaign piece by piece, until they finally totaled $2.45 million.
*
Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, was absent with leave from the Senate, starting Wednesday, to undergo surgery to repair a herniated disc.
*
Putting bets on the red and black: Shortly before he filed to run again against Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Maloney got a VIP tour of the Bowles Rice McDavid law offices in Charleston.
Which might have been an little awkward, since a partner in the firm, Tom Heywood, was co-chairman of Tomblin's 2011 campaign committee and was master of ceremonies for the inauguration in November.
*
While Tomblin has sounded more and more confident of late about the state's likelihood of landing a multibillion-dollar ethane cracking plant deal -- and Tomblin's not one to shoot his mouth off without being reasonably certain of what he's saying -- it can't bode well that Ohio Gov. John Kasich is moving his State of the State address this Tuesday to Steubenville.
State Development Office officials have good reason to believe that all of Ohio's proposed sites for the cracker plant are on the Ohio River.
*
Word is that the other "unnamed" company in negotiations to bring a cracker plant to West Virginia is Brakem, headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Brakem has significant U.S. holdings, after buying out petrochemical giant Sunoco in 2010, including a polypropylene plant near Kenova.
*
Finally, speaking of which, the location of the first cracker plant in the state is ... the Capitol press room.
Yes, somebody mysteriously delivered a plant that, instead of fruit, bears saltines and Ritz crackers.
Admit it, you were probably like me: when you first heard mention of a $2 billion cracker plant, you thought, "Is there really that much demand for those little baked goods?"
Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.
