The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency helps students in need of loans and such....when they are not helping themselves.
One place the PHEAA might find some money is in the bonuses that are paid to their top executives.
The PHEAA wracked up $400,000 in legal bills trying UNSUCCESSFULLy to not disclose the fact that $860,000
was spent on board retreats over five years.
Yesterday, the board unanimously approved executive bonuses for its five top execs to the tune of $573,838.
Three execs got $113,515 each on top of their $217,257 annual salary.
Another exec who got a late start in her job this year got $52,436 or 26% of her base salary of $201,178.
The agency's president received $180,857 to go on top of his $289,118 base salary = $469,975.
Penn State's governor makes just $164,396.
A state rep defended the bonuses by saying, "Our financial incentives have to be competitive in order to retain these folks. ... You are not going to be able to run these types of agencies with folks that don't demand this type of salary."
But, if they are paid that much, then there is no money left to run the agency or worse yet, to disperse to the students that the agency has been created for in the first place, no?
$500k will put 10-15 students through four years of school fully funded.
Let's see...divide up $500K among five people who make more than $200K or give it to 12 needy-worthy students so they can get a four year education?
Hmm...what would Robin Hood do?
The Governor of PA makes more than that, check their tax return from last year, it was in the range of $600,000. On top of that, TAXPAYERS PAY for housing - including bills, car, driver, body guards, gas, food, servants, and more.
Let's be realistic, dividing up $500,000 among the 166,000 grant recipients from 2006 would only amount to a few dollars each.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 24, 2007 2:15 PM | Permalink to Comment