New Assembly leader doles out staff raises
March 15, 2010
New state Assembly Speaker John Perez has been very generous with staff raises since assuming office March 1. [San Francisco Chronicle]
The Los Angeles Democrat boosted pay for eight of his staff members the day he was sworn in. Most notable was chief of staff Sara Ramirez, who saw her salary grow from $125,256 to $190,008.
These new raises come as California faces a $20 billion budget shortfall and state employees continue taking three unpaid furlough days a month.
A spokeswoman for Perez defended the raises, arguing that his staff is “taking on a tremendous amount of extra work” now that Perez is Speaker.
Perez’s own salary jumped from $95,291 to $109,584 when he assumed the new position.
The pay raises were first uncovered by the Sacramento Bee through a state public records request.
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