¶ … Texas have inspired discussion about the pay of public officials. State representative Terry Keel, claiming to be cutting expense corners, said that he would block a bill to increase the pay of Texas judges. In an as-yet-unresolved conflict of stories, Houston representative Rodney Ellis has ties to a scandal regarding this proposed legislation, in which the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court threatened political retribution if judges were not given a pay raise (see, for example, "Judge pay hits Houston pols in purse" by Rick Casey in the June 1, 2005 Houston Chronicle). Nationwide, different groups are becoming a more and more vocal opposition to large government salaries -- Citizens Against Government Waste, at cagw.org, regularly cites examples of ineffectual and even corrupt elected and appointed officials getting pay raises.
Non-profit executives' pay is no less controversial; in an organization without shareholders or even, as in government, constituents who may vote in a replacement,...
In light of recent scandals in corporate accounting (think Enron and WorldCom) and the above types of government accountability being demanded by the public, nonprofit and government salaries are coming under significant scrutiny.
One recent article addressing this issue notes the increased examination and accountability required in for-profit organizations; it notes that many of the same types of wage-inflation and exorbitant bonus structures also exist in the realm of universities, foundations, and other non-profit groups. (Turley 2004) Turley notes stories of university leaders' being comped "luxury apartments and cars, personal loans and other perks," and of even more egregious violations at the Nature Conservancy, a $3.3 billion environmental nonprofit, "ranging from hiding the personal income of employees to sweetheart land deals for favored parties to using not-for-profit funds to give a…
