[Vision2020] Coach Gets Top Idaho Salary

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (January 2, 2009) Spokesman Review.

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Coach gets top Idaho salary
Among state employees, top 10 wage-earners work in education

BOISE – Idaho’s highest-paid state employee isn’t the governor, a 
university president or a key scientist – it’s Boise State University head 
football coach Chris Petersen.

Petersen heads the list of a record of 310 Idaho state employees who now 
out-earn Gov. Butch Otter. The list has swelled from 284 last year, in 
part because Otter opted to turn down his scheduled 3 percent pay raise 
this year and stick with last year’s salary of $108,727.

“He feels that if the other employees aren’t getting raises, he shouldn’t 
get a raise either,” said Otter’s budget chief, Wayne Hammon. “So he’ll 
just turn it back.”

Petersen’s $806,998 salary, which comes from both state and private 
sources, is now almost eight times the governor’s salary. It’s risen with 
the success of BSU’s football program, ballooning from $400,000 two years 
ago – when Petersen also was the state’s highest paid employee. It was 
$725,109 last year after the Broncos won the Fiesta Bowl.

Idaho’s state salaries fall off quickly from Petersen’s, with BSU head 
basketball coach Greg Graham coming in second at $343,678. BSU President 
Bob Kustra places third at $299,416, followed by Idaho State University 
President Arthur Vailas, $286,650; BSU athletic director Eugene Bleymaier, 
$266,115; and University of Idaho academic faculty member and dean Aicha 
Elshabini, $230,838.

Steve Shaw, a political scientist at Northwest Nazarene University, said 
the news is reminiscent of Babe Ruth’s famous answer when asked why his 
contract gave him a salary bigger than that of then-President Herbert 
Hoover. “I had a better year than he did,” Ruth said.

Shaw said the salary discrepancies show some “misplaced priorities,” at a 
time when the state is making sharp budget cuts. “The coaches’ salaries 
have just kind of exploded over the years,” he said.

In 2007, a survey by the Council of State Governments ranked Otter’s pay 
35th among the 50 states, and well below the national average of $124,398. 
Otter also receives a $4,500 monthly housing allowance, since Idaho is one 
of six states with no official governor’s residence.

Among those who now make more than the governor are his chief of staff, an 
array of university officials, physicians employed by the state Department 
of Health and Welfare, the investment manager for the state retirement 
fund, the director of the office of the state Board of Education, top 
executives of several state departments and divisions, and all of the 
state’s district judges.

Idaho’s state controller’s office prepares a report for legislators each 
year on state employee pay, including the breakdown on how many are paid 
more than the governor. That figure dropped to a low of 81 in 2001, but 
has steadily climbed.

This year, the top 10 highest paid state employees all work for 
universities. Overall, a study released earlier this month found that 
Idaho state employees on average make 15 percent below market wages for 
their jobs.

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Top 10 Idaho state salaries 

1. Chris Petersen, Boise State University head football coach, $806,998 
(including $141,752 in state funds)

2. Greg Graham, BSU head basketball coach, $343,678 ($285,012 of that is 
state funds)

3. Robert Kustra, BSU president, $299,416

4. Arthur Vailas, Idaho State University president, $286,650

5. Eugene Bleymaier, BSU athletic director, $266,115 ($122,413 of that is 
state funds)

6. Aicha Elshabini, University of Idaho academic faculty/dean, $230,838 
(60 percent is state funds)

7. Steven Daley Laursen, interim president, University of Idaho, $220,002

8. Douglas D. Baker, UI provost and executive vice president, $209,622

9. Donald L. Burnett, UI law school dean, $207,938

10. Mark J. Rudin, BSU vice president, $203,570

Source: Idaho State Controller, Idaho State Board of Education
 
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*sniff* *sniff*

I smell pork.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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