Salary and education

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Elected Official and Judicial Compensation Commission unanimously recommended raising the salary of Utah's governor by 36 percent ("Report: Time to raise governor's salary," Tribune, Dec. 4).

That would bring compensation for our governor from the 12th lowest in the country to the 12th highest. When Utah ranks 15th lowest in population, I wonder how much sense this makes.

Perhaps it would make more sense to tie the governor's compensation to some tangible, measurable and significant parameter related to the compensation of other state public employees. I suggest using something that portends this state's future, such as the salaries of public education teachers (fourth-lowest in the nation) or per-pupil public education spending (dead last, by a wide margin).

Tying the compensation of top state government officials to the money spent on the education of our children just might improve things for everyone.

Dave Moore

Sandy