Report: House payroll grows under Casada
The Tennessean’s Joel Ebert reports that new House Speaker Glen Casada has increased payroll costs in the lower chamber of the General Assembly, compared with his predecessor (a fellow Republican), in large part due to salary hikes for existing staffers and the hiring of more personnel.
Under Speaker Glen Casada, cost of running Tennessee House of Representatives increases by $1.3M https://t.co/v1DVX6VTZm via @tennessean
— Joel Ebert (@joelebert29) March 6, 2019
Ebert’s analysis shows Casada presides over a $5.1 million payroll for employees in his office, House leadership, and committees. Last year at this time, that payroll stood at $3.8 million. Casada’s office says much of that change is due to reclassification of House employees.
That may not be the last of the increased spending: The General Assembly is in line to receive a $7 million budget increase under Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s annual spending plan introduced this week.
Casada said House employees have been “under-compensated for the last several years.”
“With our new House leadership team in place, we are modernizing operations to fulfill our constitutional responsibilities to represent constituents effectively, and to craft and enact laws that provide solutions and meet the needs of our state,” he told the newspaper.
Salaries for the eight staffers in the speaker’s office this year total nearly $942,000. Last year, the five employees in then-House Speaker Beth Harwell’s office earned $545,000.
Yep, the Tennessee Taliban strikes again.
What a gravy train and hog wallow. With the per diems, pensions, and Cadillac health insurance, too. And “staff” doing all the work and the op-eds. All of that needs to be revisited in the newspapers.
Wow. And who said Beth Harwell wasn’t conservative enough?
So much for smaller government.
Yet another example of “conservative” values in action. Casada doesn’t want to spend a plugged nickel on poverty reduction programs for the truly needy. But he doesn’t mind blowing our taxes on himself and his staff.