Are We Getting What We Pay For?

Back in December, Alabama was finally able to top a list other than the AP or Coaches' Football Polls. It came in the salary paid to the Alabama's Attorney General. Troy King makes $168,000 a year. He had languished in second place behind California's Jerry Brown, but Brown and all other elected officials took an 18% pay cut, lowering his salary from $184,301 annually to $151,127 annually according to an AP report back in December.

Now, that's an awfully big salary, even for a lawyer in Alabama. Troy King is right about one thing--he personally doesn't control the salary. It was set by the legislature back in the 1960s to be tied to the pay of Supreme Court Justices. As their salary has increased, the AG has been the beneficiary. However, Troy King hasn't been proactive in a time of fiscal unrest either. He hasn't encouraged the legislature to address the problem, although Chris Bence (King's spokesman) did note that he apparently refused to receive a raise this year. This is a start, but it's a slow one when states like California are making drastic cuts to pay in order to make ends meet. So yet again, Troy King passes the buck when it comes to how much he is paid.

As Alabamians, though, we deserve to ask ourselves a bigger question--are we getting what we pay for? Here's the thing--it's alright to pay someone for legal advice if it's really, really good legal advice. Then that person is just doing honest work for the people of the state. In fact, a decent salary can encourage more folks from the middle class to enter public service if they have experience for the job. However, even when it comes to this standard, we're not getting what we pay for.

First, let's look King's handling of a major ethics investigation. As y'all remember, the two-year college scandal was one of the biggest in Alabama's history. Legislators have gone to jail, and top public officials like Roy Johnson have been removed from office. This was a major investigation, one where the Attorney General should have been the leader. However, Troy King had to recuse himself and give the case to St. Clair County DA Richard Minor. It turns out that King had asked Johnson for a job for a family member of a friend and had also asked Johnson to support a victims' rights group which had supported his campaign. Here's what the Daily Home out in Talladega had to say about all this. They write: "St. Clair County District Attorney Richard Minor, when asked to oversee the investigation in lieu of King, knew exactly what to do. He presented prosecutors with a list of employees in his own office who knew someone in the two-year system, whether it was a student, faculty or staff, to ensure that there was nothing that could be construed as a conflict of interest." They also note of King's conduct: "Asking the target of an AG investigation to find jobs for at least two people is not as King would downplay it--merely helping someone. It was a conflict, pure and simple, and his role should come under investigation as well." That's a pretty big problem for such a highly-paid official.

Second, it seems that Troy King has spent a lot of his time as the state's top lawyer hiring...other lawyers. First he contracts with Jere Beasley, a liberal trial lawyer, to sue pharmaceutical companies in a move that was criticized by conservatives like former Alabama AG Bill Pryor and the Heritage Foundation. It's also worth noting that after funneling these contracts and gaining Beasley's political support, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against King's action in an 8-1 decision throwing out jury verdicts in the lawsuits against these companies. Then, Troy King has spent an awful lot of money on his own defense. Troy King has been under investigation by the Feds for some time for his role in a number of ethical scandals which have been well-documented on this blog. Back in August, he got a legislative committee to approve spending up to $100,000 to hire lawyers from the Birmingham firm Bradley Arant to respond to his federal subpoena. So yet again, Troy King is spending taxpayers' money to hire other attorneys to defend his office.

Now, at the end of the day, the numbers just plain don't add up. Troy King is being paid an extremely high salary, particularly in a state like Alabama where the cost of living is generally low. There are probably quite a few lawyers out there in private practice who would want to make what Troy King is making to do the state's work. However, when we look at Troy King's body of work, the results aren't there. He has had to recuse himself from some of our state's biggest cases, and he has spent much of his time rewarding private contracts to do the state's work. It's time for conservatives to rise up and oppose this type of nonsense. Conservatives have regularly fought to bring control of Congressional pay raises in Washington--it only makes sense to demand the same of our leaders in Alabama.