I-Team: Elected prosecutors open pursestrings after dodging steep 2011 budget cuts

TAMPA - When Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature forced state workers to chip in 3 percent for their pensions last year, some sheriffs struck back. They increased the pay for their employees by 3 percent.

But the I-Team discovered that some employees in a few of the Tampa Bay area's state prosecutors' offices did even better.

The state attorneys in Tampa, Clearwater and Sarasota gave out average raises of 3 percent or more in 2011. In Tampa, 82 percent of the staff got an increase.

"When you look at most of us in this recession, we've been working harder for less," said government watchdog Tarren Bragdon. "And it sounds like the case in government has been very different."

The largest prosecutor's office raises were granted by Jerry Hill, the state attorney for Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. The hikes for the Hill employees who received raises averaged more than 5 percent.

In excess of 40 assistant state attorneys working for Hill received an increase of 6 percent or more, according to an I-Team analysis of payroll records. Pay raises related to promotions were excluded.
   
"Taxpayers should ask elected officials some tough questions," said Bragdon, chief executive of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a new think tank dedicated to examining public sector spending in Florida. "Why am I, as a taxpayer, not getting a pay increase, but it's OK for state employees to get an increase?"

State employee union leaders say their members haven't received an across-the-board pay increase in almost six years. But that hasn't precluded government officials from granting merit raises. Those are what the state attorneys were passing out last year.

None of the Bay area's state attorneys would go on camera to explain why their employees were more deserving than other workers. Their spokespeople said the employees were rewarded for working harder.

Bragdon says the pay for other public employees has gone up in recent years, too.

"We looked at people in the '100K Club,' or individuals who work for government who earn more than $100,000 a year in salary alone," said Bragdon. "And we saw, at the county level, that increased threefold, from 2005 through 2010."

Bragdon and the Foundation for Government Accountability are compiling salary histories for state, county and public school employees in Florida that taxpayers may view at http://floridaopengov.org .

Do you have information about government waste, fraud or abuse? A tip about business misconduct that needs to be investigated? Email us at iteam@abcactionnews.com .