Eye On Boise

ITD on why they’ll pay Ness so much more than Lowe…

Nov. 20, 2009 3:38 p.m. • 5 comments

ITD said today that the reason it’ll pay new Director Brian Ness $22,000 a year more than fired Director Pam Lowe is because it negotiated a salary designed to be a substantial increase from Ness’ current salary in Michigan, after accounting for higher costs of living he’ll face in Idaho. “Salary of the department’s director is negotiable,” said ITD spokesman Jeff Stratten. “Pam received promotional increases as her responsibility within the organization grew.” Lowe, whose wrongful termination lawsuit against the state alleges sex discrimination and other charges, made $143,000 a year; Ness will make $165,000. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

Five comments on this post so far. Add yours!

fortboise on November 20 at 9:44 p.m.
Higher cost of living in Idaho than in Michigan?
You don’t say. www.inflationdata.com doesn’t say; they say Boise is 5 to 12% lower than the places it lists for Michigan.

I looked a while, didn’t find anything that looks like a definitive source… but everything I did find says the cost of living is higher in Michigan.

It damn sure is not 15% higher in Idaho. So, they’re pretty much making stuff up, I say.
JamesBond on November 20 at 10:19 p.m.
In this economy, I find this huge salary increase for the ITD director an OUTRAGE. I place the blame for this on two elected officials, Butch Otter and John McGee.
slfisher on November 21 at 9:33 a.m.
Actually, fortboise, the website http://www.cityrating.com/costofliving.asp has a cost-of-living calculator between cities, and it says that a $100,000 salary in Detroit requires only a $81,761.61 salary in Boise to be equitable.
fortboise on November 22 at 9:42 p.m.
Which I take to mean the cost of living is lower here. At face value for that calculator, Ness’ $118k salary in Detroit is equivalent to $96,500 in Boise.

No justification for offering him such a large increase, or an increase over what our previous ITD Director was paid.

I do note that the site you point to also gives “Regional Consumer Price Index” numbers, and says Detroit = 168.4, Boise = 177.2. The CPI is 5% higher, but an equivalent salary is 18% lower? Doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
Phaedrus on November 23 at 8:24 a.m.
So they are going to pay the MAN $22,000 more than they paid the WOMAN who did the same job? Nice way to give Ms Lowe more arrows for her quiver. I hope she nails them!