Arkansas Blog

Hey Ernie, "Passmethemoney". Sheesh!

Page 11 of the "timeline and organizational plan" has a nice comment on it:

"While it is desirable to have managers with prior lottery experience to undertake certain tasks, it is just as vital to fill the majority of senior management positions with Tennesseans."

Might need to hire a proof reader for 80k...

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite'!

I find myself completely okay with these salaries. I expected to be outraged, but the truth is that they really don't bother me. I WANT these folks to be paid well. What is worse: a well paid lotto official or a multi-million dollar scandal? I suspect these salaries are high in an effort to prevent the temptation to "fix" the lotto. No one who works for the commission would ever be eligible for the prize. At least that is my assumption.

I certainly will demand results from these people, but I think the high salaries are smart. When you are dealing with that many zeroes, the less temptation the better.

By the way, I understand that people may try to screw the system anyway. I just believe the higher salaries abate that temptation to a degree.

Sorry, Rockstar, but that doesn't wash. You're telling us that we have to pay lottery officials more than the head of the state police, or state legislators, or doctors, to sort of try to keep them honest?

Will nobody in the state government step forward and put a stop to this blatant rip-off of the State of Arkansas? This is the most shameful episode in the history of a state government that is overflowing with shameful episodes.

Rockstar you are talking as if only you hear the notes, when in fact, the impact and the anger, frustration, and eye-opening that will occur amongst the civil servants, if not publc administrators will release a jealous behavior. Not only does this sort of adminstration reflect poorly in bhe businese relationship, one can't help but wonder the impacts made in economic theory and its applicaton. I grant the casino/gaming industry for needing the better security, but this throws a monkey wrench into the cash flow of folks. Grant County is great and home of the folks who had the first small scale computer system within their bank, but this action I would think undermines the security inherent to tall timber. I expect more from my fellow Arkies!

Talk about a runaway good-ole-boy system...evidently Ernie's job description came with a clause that made him good-ole-boy Czar. (Guess no good-ole-girls qualify for those top gravy jobs...they'll make fine underlings, secretaries, though.)

And, you're ABSOLUTELY 100% right, archaeopteryx...just another rip off of Arkansas...just like the carpetbaggers. If comparatively exorbitant salaries meant more honesty then our Wall Street gang would be saints...along with all our millionaires. Ha

This is a blatant fleecing of our poor state and I'm gonna scream to whichever state official I can get within ear shot. Hello, Beebe/Halter...are y'all paying ANY attention...or are your relatives/friends in line for some of these jobs? Disgusting.

I expected the Lottery Commission to be the plum in state work, much like the Game and Fish Commission and Highway Department are plum jobs where salaries tend to run higher than other state jobs and more employees drive home cars.

But this is a whole different universe of sweet job. Reminds me of an institution of higher learning that gave its football coach a fat raise because the school moved from one classification to another. Same coach, same assistants, mostly the same players, just a different schedule and the justification was everyone else pays that at this level.

Until the news shifts off the big paydays Halter may not want father of the lottery on his campaign resume.

Take a close look at the appointments and subsequent hirings.

Who appointed Ray Thornton? Sen. Bob Johnson
Who recruited Ernie P? Ray Thornton
Ernie P's first hire? Julie Baldridge. Former staffer for who? Bob Johnson and Ray Thornton
Ernie P's second non VP hire? Bridgette Frazier. Former staffer for who? Bob Johnson and Ray Thornton
Ernie P's security man hire? Lance Huey. Sheriff of Ray Thornton's home county.

I'll let you be the judge of the hires. I can say if I were Gov BB or a lotto commission member I would be asking a lot of questions.

I've commented before that lottery commission salaries are taking on a "hoggish" hue that now unmistgakenly "green". Even if the revenue stream recoups these salaries in a short time and the employees have to work long hours for a few months, the fact is that over the long term the work hours will be normal, but the salaries will remain high - much higher than those of comparable state employees. And once those salaries are set, they will not go down even though the current workload may. The partnership of a politically saavy director and the politically connected is providing a governmental feast for friends in the right places. Is there any commissioner concerned about this director's lavish use of governmental money?

I think Ms. Z has a winner!

..............."Good-ole-boy-Czar"

best yet.

.

Here's Huey.

clicky

Who will pay these salaries if no one buys any lottery tickets?

$449 million 1st year sales =
2,147,253 Arkansas population 18 and over spending
$209 each on the lottery.

Actual sales per person 18 and over for 2008:

Missouri - $223
Oklahoma - $78
Louisiana - $115
Tennessee - $210
South Carolina -$292

So Ernie expects the Arkansas lottery (in its first year) to have just as much sales as well established lotteries in neighboring states with much higher per capita incomes. Now ask yourself, is Arkansas more like Missouri or Oklahoma?

Hmmm. Anyone know the reason why Oklahomans spend so little on their lottery versus folks in other states? Surely they're not smarter than the average bear.
Oh, and someone needs to check out Huey's pedigree and friends list, not that it'll make a whit's worth of difference. Just let some of us say, "Uh huh. That's just what I figured."

I'll be darned Dom Rat, it really does say that: "While it is desirable to have managers with prior lottery experience to undertake certain tasks, it is just as vital to fill the majority of senior management positions with Tennesseans." You'd think someone pulling down $324,000 per could do more editing on their plagiarized paper than Ernie P has.

And I thought the days of Gus Wingfield/Nick Wilson were over. Only its legal now. Arkansas Dems are so two faced.

In his defense, EP has staked his entire professional reptation on this thing. My take is that he isn't going to hire people unless he knows they can deliver -- this is really not the time or place for cushy state jobs.

And being an outsider, he can't really know who will deliver without serious references and testimony to competency.

But as I recall, the same posters were bitching abot hiring Tom Courtway, an Arkie who knows who is who. So the Lottery Commission hires an outsider, who given the rapid start up has to rely on others for references.

Oh, and killingmesoftly -- I don't think Robbie's commissioners can say squat -- don't forget his commissioner is Joe White. And who is Joe White's daughter? That would happen to be Robbie's personal assistant.

Solon - what does Speaker Will's legislative assistant have to do with the lottery? I haven't seen her named as one of the recipients of one of those bloated lottery jobs. The Ernie P talking points are out......he staked his personal reputation on this thing. Seriously? We dumb Arkies bought out his SC retirement. He'll back his tent and be back in Charleston in less than 5 years, laughing all the way to the bank. Solon - I would suggest you trash those talking points unless you're one of the few lucky recipients of one of those gold plated lottery jobs.