JAY NIXON'S PAY PLAN RAISES EYEBROWS

Attorney General Jay Nixon raised lots of eyebrows recently with news that he had given enormous raises to his chief of staff, Chuck Hatfield. The Kansas City Star reported earlier this summer that Nixon has increased Hatfield's salary 89 percent since 1994 to his current annual pay of $85,056. The Star said Nixon gave Hatfield a $12,000 raise in July 1996, one month before putting Hatfield on his re-election campaign full-time. For about three months before that, Hatfield drew salaries from both the state and the campaign, working part-time for each. The arrangement is legal under state ethics laws. Hatfield returned to the chief-of-staff job on Nov. 1, and then on Feb. 1 received another pay boost of $12,000. Then on July 1, Hatfield received a 5 percent raise, roughly what all state employees received at the time. Nice work if you can get it -- on the taxpayers' tab.

Nixon stoutly defends all this. When it was pointed out that Hatfield's compensation is significantly higher than that of the governor's chief of staff, Nixon snapped that he wouldn't trade Hatfield for the governor's chief of staff or anyone else. Meanwhile, the state Republican Party appeared somewhat ridiculous in referring all this to the U.S. attorney, alleging some unspecified violation of federal law. U.S. Attorney Stephen Hill dismissed the complaint as without merit.

Questions of outright lawbreaking aside, Missourians now have had another occasion to observe Jay Nixon's management style, the cut of his jib, if you will, and wonder whether this is what we want in an attorney general.