Legislators in Georgia are irate over news that employees of the state lottery program collected close to $3-million in bonuses this year. Sales of lottery tickets, which finance the state’s HOPE scholarship program and pre-kindergarten classes, reached a record level, topping $3.4-billion for the fiscal year that ended in June.
In an article in Sunday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bill Hembree, a Republican who is chairman of the Georgia House’s Higher Education Committee, said the compensation was “insane.”
Margaret DeFrancisco, president of the Georgia Lottery, received a bonus of $236,500 on top of her $286,000 salary. Raises for the lottery’s 260 employees amounted to about 4 percent in the past year, compared with 3 percent for state employees.
According to Tony Campbell, chairman of the lottery’s board, the bonuses are par for the course in sales jobs, and it is unfair to compare the lottery employees with government ones. Besides, Mr. Campbell says, the bonuses have been effective in keeping employees focused and ensuring the program’s success.
Legislators previously complained about lottery officials’ bonuses in 2004, and the amount of bonuses awarded in the past year is more than 10 times as high as those granted in 1993, the lottery’s first year. —Elizabeth F. Farrell
