repubgazette2-16-07gamblingownslegislaturesalaries

State Auditor Glen Gainer's decision to post online the salaries of all state employees is an interesting move. True, the information is public, and available to anyone who asks for it, but it's a big step to offer it without being asked and to end up with news stories drawing attention to it.

I understand why some -- probably most -- of the 65,000 state employees whose salaries are now front and center in the public eye are upset, or, more likely, just embarrassed. Some of them don't make a lot of money, and having their salaries published is an unnecessary spotlight turned on otherwise relatively private people.

More interesting to me than the amounts made by various people were the names of people who are on the state payroll.

For example, there was around a half million dollars paid in 2006 to a total of 21 people named Tomblin. Now, we have no way of knowing how many of these Tomblins are related to the Senate president, but it was interesting to see so many with that name.

Likewise, the name Chafin appears about 11 times, with salaries totaling about $250,000, but there are undoubtedly a lot of Chafins not related to Senator Truman Chafin.

There are 16 state workers named Mollohan, making, jointly, about $280,000, but whether some or all are related to the 1st District congressman is impossible to know. However, the one worker named Rahall seems more certain, since his name was listed as Nick Joe Rahall III.

There are a grand total of 31 Starchers on the state payroll, with salaries totaling nearly a million dollars. But whether they've ever had a family dinner with the Supreme Court justice is another question altogether. After all, there were also five other Benjamins besides Brent on the state dole, but I happen to know for a fact none of them are related to the newest justice. So you just never know.

There are six Manchins on the state payroll, but two of them, Joe and Tim, were elected. All together, the Manchins made about $200,000, with the governor snaring about half of that for himself.

Government workers find themselves in an uncomfortable quandry sometimes. They are not elected officials, and yet, as public employees, much of their lives are part of the public record. I believe state salaries should be available to anyone who asks. But I don't think it was necessary to post them just for the heck of it.

Former NBA star Tim Hardaway said this week he doesn't like gay people, so, naturally, he has been disinvited to participate in any of the events in connection with the upcoming NBA All Star Weekend.

The Hardaway issue comes after a fellow former NBA player who no one ever heard of announced, thinking it was important, that he was gay. Hardaway's statement follows a public brouhaha on the Grey's Anatomy gay vs. straight playground fight.

What's interesting is that both Hardaway and the TV star, Isaiah Washington, are black, which you might think would give them a special insight on what can or cannot be said in this PC world of ours.

Tim Hardaway was known as one of the best shooters in the league, but his straight shooting off the court will likely require the obligatory apology tour and "treatment" to get his head right.

In America, freedom of expression is really just a memory.

West Virginia voters living in Kanawha, Jefferson, Ohio and Hancock counties will likely be the last line of defense between a legislature purchased in November by gambling interests and their state becoming, as Delegate Tim Armstead put it, the Las Vegas of the East.

The House of Delegates voted 53-40 in favor of permitting table game votes in the four counties with racetracks, with Republicans almost unanimously against the bill. Senate approval is considered a mere formality.

Gambling lobbyists and their various cohorts spent hundreds of thousands in the 2006 campaign to elect

candidates who would dance to their tune, and it paid off with Friday's invitation-only ball on the statehouse marble floor. And while Gov. Joe Manchin tries to play the part of the wallflower, his role in who won the election can't be ignored.

The lobbyists who wrote the gambling bill upped the ante and bought more support in recent days by promising thousands of dollars to counties, cities and special causes all over the state.

After the Senate rubber stamps the bill, it will be up to the voters of four key counties to accept the bribe, or show the willpower and integrity their elected officials did not.