Lottery pays off -- for its staff

Salary range is $50,000-$145,000

Some of the highest-paying jobs in state government were created Thursday.

The state lottery commission approved a management structure and salary ranges for the lottery's top 60 employees. The jobs will pay $50,000 to $145,000 a year -- and every lottery employee will be eligible for a bonus.

It's the latest sign that the lottery is not your typical bureaucracy.

Lawmakers specified when they created the lottery this past summer that it will operate as much on its own as possible, and they gave it wide flexibility. Most of the lottery commission's hiring and spending decisions, for example, are not subject to the state's personnel or purchasing rules.

Lottery Director Tom Shaheen, who started Monday, is paid $235,000 a year with a possible bonus of $50,000.

That makes him one of the highest-paid state workers -- in the same range as university chancellors. His deputies will be on a level with the governor and top university administrators, and will be paid more than Council of State members and state Cabinet secretaries.

Gov. Mike Easley, for example, is paid $121,000 a year.

The commissioners said much will be expected of lottery employees -- particularly over the next several months.

Commissioners said long hours will be necessary every day to sell the first ticket as planned by April 5 and offer a big jackpot game by July. Bonuses will range from $1,000 to $16,000 per employee if the lottery starts on time.

Shaheen said the pay was necessary to recruit high-caliber people with lottery experience or management expertise. He said he used Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee lotteries as comparisons.

Pay for lottery employees in Tennessee has drawn objections from lawmakers in both parties there since the lottery started two years ago. One Democratic senator this year called it "the most generous compensation package of any lottery in the world."

Georgia lawmakers also questioned lottery employees' pay.

'Private business'

Shaheen said he expects criticism here. But he said the lottery is akin to a big business with predicted revenue of $1.2 billion a year. Forecasts are for $400 million of that to go for state education programs in the first year.

"Some will compare us to the state salaries, but, in essence, we should be compared to a private business," he said. "We are marketing a consumer product, ... and we have to sell those tickets at a retail location."

He pointed out that the salaries will be paid from lottery sales, and not from taxpayer money.

But state Rep. Carolyn Justice, a Pender County Republican who supported the lottery, said that every dollar going to a salary is one that won't go to education.

"I guess at the very highest level, you will need to pay for the expertise," she said. "But I can't imagine that for the rest you couldn't get some bright people and train them. It does sound very high to me."

Shaheen said he doesn't plan to formally advertise the top six positions at the lottery, all of which he expects to go to people from other states with lottery experience. He said he wants his top deputies in place by Jan. 1.

Shaheen wasn't yet sure how he would advertise for other lottery jobs, though hundreds of resumes already have been received from people wanting work.

Shaheen said he expects most of an eventual 200 to 300 lottery jobs will go to North Carolinians.

Dana Cope, who leads the nonprofit State Employees Association of North Carolina, which represents state employees on a range of issues, said the salary levels are a reflection that the state's priorities are out of line.

He said all state salaries should be competitive in the market but aren't. "It seems to me that the state is prioritizing the hawking of lottery tickets over, say, the people who perform food inspections, or safety and health inspections," he said.