Salaries of top staffers evade Corbett's budget ax

HARRISBURG - As Gov. Corbett prepares to swing his budget ax on state spending, there is one area in which he has made few, if any, trims: the salaries of his top staffers.

An analysis of records shows that while Corbett has hired fewer people to his inner circle of executive and high-level staff than did his predecessor, Ed Rendell, he is, in many instances, paying them more.

In all, Corbett is spending a mere $27,000 less on those salaries than Rendell, even as he prepares to propose steep cuts in the next state budget to help offset a projected $4 billion deficit.

Spokesman Kevin Harley said in an e-mail that Corbett had made "a conscious decision to pay the fairest market value to attract the best available talent." He also said no more hires were planned for the executive staff.

"The point is not how much is the governor spending, although clearly he is spending less," Harley wrote. "The question is how much is the governor wasting - that number is zero."

But government watchdogs say Corbett should be looking to reduce his payroll to set an example for other areas of government, even more so in tough economic times.

"He's going to be cutting the heck out of government," said Tim Potts, cofounder of the activist group Democracy Rising PA, who noted that state workers already had gone four years without pay raises. "If you're expecting people who actually make government work to sacrifice, and if you're expecting citizens who depend on state services to endure cuts, then you certainly should expect to share in that."

According to records provided by the Governor's Office, Corbett has 16 people working in executive or top-level positions, paying them just under $2.07 million. Rendell had 18 high-level staffers working for him at the start of 2010, paying them just over $2.09 million.

The difference: $27,069.

The average salary for a top-level Corbett staffer is $129,303, compared with $116,439 under Rendell.

While Corbett chief of staff Bill Ward's $154,133 salary is the same as his predecessor's, his deputy chiefs of staff on average earn about $20,000 more. Of the governor's four deputy chiefs, for instance, two are paid $135,003 and the other two make $145,018. Rendell paid his three deputy chiefs between $95,003 and $136,646.

Corbett's secretary of legislative affairs, Annmarie Kaiser, earns $135,003. Her equivalent under Rendell, Colleen Kopp, took in $107,345.

And Corbett is paying the top aide in the first lady's office $93,008. Rendell paid $75,267.

In some instances, however, Corbett is saving money by having fewer people, even if he does pay them more on average.

For example, Rendell had four special assistants on staff, with salaries between $70,709 and $126,866, for a total of $404,246.

Corbett has two special assistants and pays them $219,033 combined.

One of them, Brian Westmoreland, makes $119,003 and has been described as a "body man" of sorts, helping the governor with logistics during public events and with his interactions with the public.

Westmoreland works in addition to the executive detail of state troopers who guard Corbett around the clock.

Harley, Corbett's spokesman, earns $145,018, making him among the highest-paid staffers in the Governor's Office.

But Harley fills two roles - director of communications and press secretary. Under Rendell, those positions were held by two people and cost $198,573.

Corbett, records show, has added at least one new position: energy executive. Patrick Henderson was tapped for the $105,018 job to advise Corbett on energy issues as the natural-gas-drilling industry takes hold in the Marcellus Shale region.

Overall, Corbett's office has 55 employees, including staffers in district offices, and pays them a total of $4.3 million.

That is about $213,000 below what Rendell spent on his 61 staffers.

Political scientist and analyst Chris Borick said he believed Corbett was missing an opportunity to show he was more fiscally responsible than his predecessor.

"When you talk about making fiscal discipline the cornerstone of your administration, you open yourself up to criticism if you don't produce savings in the areas you have direct control over," said Borick, an associate professor and director of the Institute of Public Opinion at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.

"It's paramount for the governor, in terms of his broader credibility, to make a clear statement that he's exercising the same fiscal discipline that he's been talking about for the state as a whole," Borick said.

On the campaign trail, Corbett often skewered the Rendell administration for what he said were out-of-control spending and misguided spending priorities. At the same time, he made a no-new-tax pledge, which means that as he looks to balance the books, he will have to lean heavily on making spending cuts.

As governor, Corbett can set the salaries for his executive staff and most members of his office, from administrative assistants to top deputies.

The pay for cabinet members is set by statute, so Corbett's nominees earn the same amount as Rendell's.

Starting in 2008, however, Rendell asked his cabinet to return cost-of-living increases that were due. He did so, too; when he left office, his salary was $170,150. Pennsylvania's 2010 statutory salary for governor was $174,914, and because of a scheduled 1.7 percent cost-of-living increase for 2011, it shot up to $177,888 in January.

Corbett has decided to skip the 2011 increase, and has said he will instead give the extra money to charities around the state.

His cabinet secretaries, too, are not taking their cost-of-living increases for 2011, according to the governor's Office of Administration.