To state the obvious: Only 50 people (or lizard people) get to be a governor in the United States of America, but now we know how much each one of those elected officials makes (via the Business Journals).
California, Pennsylvania and Tennessee all pay their guv'nahs more than any other state in the union, but Bill Haslam, the Republican governor of Tennessee returns his entire $187,500 salary to the state each year. You know who also declines a salary?
Florida's own Rick "Red Tide Ain't My Fault" Scott, who has declined his budgeted salary of $130,273 every year that he's been office.
Now, before you start thinking, "Damn, bat boy isn't so bad after all," consider this: In June,a financial-disclosure report filed with the state Commission on Ethics showed that Scott's net worth grew by nearly 56 percent to $232.6M as of the end of 2017, up more than $83M from a year earlier (to be fair, his wealth declined $27M according to a 2016 report).
"Scott, who made a fortune in the health-care industry and other businesses before entering politics, has put his investments in a blind trust while serving as governor," according to the Orlando Sentinel. "As a result, the new financial-disclosure report did not detail the reasons that his net worth increased substantially in 2017."
Here are some other governors who forgo their pay, according to this slideshow.
- Gina Raimondo, the Democratic governor or Rhode Island, took a pay decrease in March 2015 which made her salary $132,710.25 (that's about $7K less than what the state budgeted).
- Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan returns all but $1 of his $159,300 salary to the state each year.
- Bruce Rauner, the Republican governor of Illinois returns all but $1 of his $177,412 salary to the state each year.
- Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor or New York, has taken a 5-percent pay decrease from his budgeted salary of $178,509.
- Tom Wolf, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, is required to receive a salary, but donates his entire paycheck to charity each year.
Every one else?
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 5, 2018.