Small Town News

Racing Commission could receive potential 45 percent raise

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Members of the Macon County Racing Commission have been pushing State Rep. Pebblin Warren (D-Tuskegee) for a raise for about half a decade, and this year the board may get its wish.

Warren has filed a bill, currently running in the classifieds section of The Tuskegee News, proposing to raise the commissioners' base salary from $30,000 per year to $50,000 and to increase the money each commissioner earns per performance from $75 to $100.

"There hasn't been a raise in 15 years," said Cliff Johnson, Macon County Racing Commission Chair. "We work eight-to 12-hour days. We're out there day and night, we don't get paid vacation, and we don't get paid time-and-a-half. All our workers do, but we don't."

State law requires at least one member of the Racing Commission to attend each racing event at the Macon County Greyhound Park - both simulcast horse and live dog races. Each session of day races or night races is called a performance.

Employees at the park said two performances are held per day, totaling 14 per week. Currently, if a racing commissioner attends every performance, he or she earns $54,600 on top of his or her base salary of $30,000 for a possible gross of $84,600. If the bill passes, the increase could mean as much as $122,800 in gross salary per year for commissioners plus a full benefit package, making for a possible 45 percent, $38,200 raise.

"I think it would be proper. This is a job where you have to work, work, work," said the commission's newest member Luther Curry.

Warren said she wasn't sure how the commission was paid nor calculated a commission-er's potential salary before introducing the bill, which she said was delivered to her in a resolution. Since the commission pays its representatives from its own fund, her only question was, "Can you afford it?"

"We talked it over and I honestly tried to do it last year," Warren said. "They told me they hadn't had a raise in some time and said they would be able to pay for it. They've been asking for two or three years, the bill just hasn't gone anywhere."

Since the commission said it currently has the money to enact the raise, Warren included in the bill that it take immediate effect once signed into law by the governor.



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© 2010 The Tuskegee News Tuskegee, Alabama. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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