California is in the midst of a financial meltdown. Red ink is spilling down the stairs of the Capitol. But of course, none of this affects the fiefdom that is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine created by Proposition 71. As I wrote during the campaign, under its terms half the state could fall in the ocean and we put upon California taxpayers would still have to borrow $300 million to put into the pockets of private biotech companies and their business partners at the universities.
And now, more! The top executives at the CIRM may be getting a big fat raise. From the watch dog press release:
The California stem cell agency is proposing raising salary ranges for top employees a whopping 50 percent, an increase that is unjustified in the face of a state budget crisis, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) said today.
The proposal, to be considered by the stem cell agency’s Governance Committee on Wednesday, comes after a $65,000, 41 percent, pay raise given to the agency’s general counsel, Tamar Pachter, in December after 10 months on the job. With the increase Pachter now makes $225,000, more than state Attorney General Jerry Brown’s annual salary of $184,301. Pachter was a state deputy attorney general when she was hired by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) last spring at a salary of $160,000.”They are demonstrating a particularly tone-deaf action at a time when the state faces a serious budget crisis,” said John M. Simpson, FTCR Stem Cell Project Director. “These salaries and proposed ranges are simply too high for an agency that when fully staffed will have a total of 50 employees. For comparison, the governor’s salary is set at $212,179.”
The Governance Committee is being asked to set the top salary range for the oversight committee chairman and the agency’s president at $618,750, a 50 percent increase from the current top of $412,500. The new president, Alan Trounson, is being paid $490,000, an amount already above the current official range of $275,000 to $412,500. Chairman Robert Klein has declined to take a salary.
The elitism and sense of entitlement is so thick it seem impenetrable. At least, one would think this travesty would be big news in the California media that so hates privilege and which acted as so many in-the-tank boosters for this benighted measure when it was up for a vote.
But so far, we hear the chirping of crickets. Hey, I know! The MSM will report it after the raises are given—just like they finally reported the many problems with Proposition 71 after the election was held.
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