CHATTANOOGA (AP) - The Tennessee Valley Authority paid many of its top executives substantially more in fiscal 2012 than in the year before.
TVA's fiscal year ended Sept. 30 and year-end figures were released Friday by the government utility.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported TVA CEO Tom Kilgore's salary was down a fraction from the year before, but performance bonuses and deferred retirement benefits pushed his 2012 total compensation to more than $4 million - up nearly 2%.
The largest pay jump fell to Kimberly S. Greene, who oversaw improvements in fossil fuel power generation in the last year. Her salary went up 50% to $3.57 million.
Chief financial officer John Thomas earned 32% more for trimming utility expenses when power sales came in $800 million short.
U.S. Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. said in a news release that he was displeased with the announcement.
"I think some of the compensation is
ridiculously excessive. To give pay raises as high as 50% in times of
relatively low inflation is just wrong and unfair to the
ratepayers," Duncan said. "Because East Tennessee is one of the
most popular places to live in the entire country, TVA can get outstanding
people at its top level without paying these extraordinary
salaries.
"This is especially cruel in a time
when almost all other federal employees have had their salaries frozen and
millions of private sector workers have had their salaries go
down."
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