Lottery CEOs costly, official warns
Monday, October 31st, 2005
By Chris Fitzsimon
Director of Tennessee lottery advises commission on what to expect By David Rice JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU Monday, October 31, 2005
RALEIGH
Rebecca Paul is something of a star in the lottery industry. She has run the Illinois lottery. She started up new lotteries in Florida in 1987, Georgia in 1993 and Tennessee in 2004.
In her first year as the director of the Tennessee Lottery, Paul was paid $702,000 - a $350,000 base salary, plus incentive bonuses that the officials who lured her from Georgia to Nashville agreed to pay.
So as the N.C. Lottery Commission searches for someone to run the state’s new lottery, commission chairman Charles Sanders warns that the executive director - who will run the equivalent of a billion-dollar business - could be paid well more than the governor and the highest-paid state employee.
Sanders said that the commission has received about 15 applications from qualified candidates so far. Sanders says that the commission hopes to start interviewing candidates next month, and he wants to hire someone with experience starting a lottery.
North Carolina will get exactly one chance to start a lottery right, he said.
"It’s only once…. It takes a very special person," he said. "I just think the public should understand that this is not something that is the usual state business."
Though Paul’s compensation stands out, a survey of lottery directors’ pay in other neighboring states and in Oklahoma - which started its lottery this month - found that they are paid from $129,000 to $325,000. (more…)
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