Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.

A new report from the government transparency group OpentheBooks.com shows more than 78,000 public officials in Texas are paid more than $100,000 per year.

Some city managers make far more than that. According to the report:

Top-paid city managers included Peter Vargas ($433,842 Allen); T.C. Broadnax ($406,850 Dallas); Spencer Cronk ($378,071 Austin); Bruce Glasscock ($374,537 Plano); Daniel Johnson ($357,744 Richardson); David Cooke ($348,730 Fort Worth); Tomas Gonzalez ($340,746 El Paso); and Robert Wood ($319,946 West Lake Hills).

By comparison, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is paid $153,750. But some of Abbott’s employees earn more than he does:

In the Office of the Governor alone, 48 employees earned six-figure salaries and eleven out-earned their boss ($153,750). This included four deputy directors who made $265,000 each. In addition, ranked against the 50 states, the Texas governor’s office has the largest staff at a headcount of 277.

Some of the biggest paychecks are found at the state’s public colleges and universities:

Football is king in Texas, and head coaches made the largest incomes: Jimbo Fisher ($5.15 million Texas A&M); Tom Herman ($4.72 million University of Texas (UT)); Dana Holgorsen ($3.7 million University of Houston). 

The Austin campus at UT employed 3,441 six-figure employees for $618 million in cash compensation. High earners in rank-and-file positions included Matthew Kivel, the president’s speech writer ($140,105); Gary Susswien, chief communications officer ($251,913); and Edmund Gordon, a diversity provost ($280,532).

According to the group Truth in Accounting, Texas has “a debt burden of $98.7 billion. That burden equates to $12,100 for every state taxpayer.”

“Texas’ financial problems stem mostly from unfunded retirement obligations that have accumulated over the years,” the group says. 

Image Credit: By Jericho [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons