FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: LEIGH FIFELSKI
Friday, January 14, 2011
(517) 999-3646
Snyder, Cabinet, Senior Staff Should Save Taxpayer Dollars, Lead By Example
LANSING – Citizens group Progress Michigan today called on Governor Rick Snyder to lead by example and forgo taking any salary as governor and cutting salary and benefits for top staff before asking others to sacrifice.
“We are hearing from the governor that we should all sacrifice to balance the state’s budget, so he should start at the top,” said David Holtz, Executive Director of Progress Michigan. “Rick Snyder is a multi-millionaire CEO who can easily afford to forgo his taxpayer-funded state salary. He should set an example for the state and refuse a salary while Michigan’s families are still struggling.”
Progress Michigan also called on the governor to cut salaries and benefits of top Cabinet and executive staff before asking state workers and Michigan families to sacrifice to balance the state’s budget.
Snyder’s choice for CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michael Finney, received a $50,000 raise over his predecessor during the Granholm administration and it is reported that the state’s new budget director’s salary is more than double that of the previous budget director.
“There is a history of CEOs receiving exorbitant salaries and hugely generous benefits while workers are told they must reduce wages, benefits and even lose their jobs,” said Holtz. “‘All of the sacrifice shouldn’t be from taxpayers and middle-class workers.
“There certainly shouldn’t be a huge salary increase for the state budget director position at a time when he is likely figuring out how to cut wages and benefits for the people outside his executive office who are answering the phones and cleaning the bathrooms. That’s just wrong.”
###