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An Innovation - In Compensation
Tripling in five years, CII salaries, bonuses, get closer look
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Business New Haven
6/24/2002
By: BNH
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ROCKY HILL - Connecticut Innovations Inc. (CII), the state's quasi-public technology investment arm, is under fire for what some view as over-extravagant investment in its own executives.
According to a June 10 story in the Manchester Journal Inquirer, CII has paid out $1.68 million in bonuses to its employees and tripled their compensation since 1996.
Such financial rewards - more generous than those at other quasi-public state agencies such as the lottery corporation - come at a time when the state is facing a $1.6 billion two-year budget shortfall.
It is also a time when lawmakers are reviewing such agencies' spending more carefully, particularly following the failed $220 million Enron deal that has roiled the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA).
CII was founded in 1989 by an act of the legislature to help stimulate technology-related and other entrepreneurial activity in Connecticut, in most cases by direct equity investment of public money raised through bond sales.
In 1996, CII reported a payroll of $979,000 for its 24 employees, with no bonuses paid.
By the end of 2001, the number of CII employees had grown to 41, whose salaries and bonuses totaled $2.76 million - nearly triple the amount just five years before.
For example, CII President Victor Budnick was paid about $227,000 last year, the paper reported, including a $131,000 salary, a bonus from profit-sharing and approximately $14,000 in interest from an employee share account.
A part-time investment-fund manager who worked 25 hours a week was paid $128,000 for his trouble - $68,000 in salary and $60,000 in bonuses.
In addition, CII managing directors all received double-digit percentage compensation increases last year.
Budnick defended the bonuses, according to the report, saying, “We pay based on the results that we have achieved.”
However, a spokesperson for Gov. John G. Rowland said the governor would ask the legislature's Program Review Committee to scrutinize the CII bonuses.
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