Editorial: $180,000 too much to pay a university lobbyist

Auburn University did not give widespread raises to employees this summer. But a woman who does not teach any of the thousands of students who pay thousands of dollars each year for an education, work full-time in Samford Hall or call plays for the football team was given a mind-boggling raise of 50 percent.

If $120,000 each year from Auburn wasn’t enough for Sherri Fulford, perhaps $180,000 will be. This does not include her salary drawn to represent Wachovia in Montgomery.

Fulford is a lobbyist who represents Auburn University, most notably in the State Legislature. Don’t get us wrong. Fulford deserves something for standing up and fighting for the best interests of the school in the Statehouse. We can’t say she wasn’t instrumental in helping post secondary education get its slice of the pie when legislators squabbled over the controversial $6.3 billion education budget … over and over again.

Smaller tax revenues than expected create a smaller education budget than hoped for. And when there’s less dough to go around between public schools and state-funded colleges and universities, battles get tense and lobbyists are in greater demand to argue their points and express their needs.

Maybe Fulford is among the best in the business and Auburn University wants to recognize that. But a 50 percent raise … when the education budget seems smaller and there are plenty of classrooms that need work and text books to be purchased for children?

By comparison the person who is supposed to be the most powerful man in the state, Gov. Bob Riley, draws a publicly funded annual salary of $112,900. As the state’s top law man, Attorney General Troy King makes $163,744. Evidently, it pays less to represent the people.

When you’re at a point where lobbyists make that much more money than the people they are lobbying for, something is a bit out of whack.

We understand the need for Auburn University to have a voice on issues that affect the university in the Legislature. But something is wrong with the system when any school is paying this much for a lobbyist.