Bobby Petrino’s Exit Makes Mike Anderson Highest Paid State Employee

The sudden departure in April of Bobby Petrino as head coach of the University of Arkansas football team – we’re assuming you heard about that – means that the price tag on the highest-paid state employee has dropped by more than half.

Petrino had dominated the annual list of state employees ranked by total compensation for the four years that he coached the Razorbacks with seven-figure pay packages that dwarfed those of his predecessor, Houston Nutt. In fiscal 2012, which started July 1, 2011, Petrino was paid $3.6 million, and his pay this year would have been in a similar stratosphere.

But when Athletic Director Jeff Long – officially, vice chancellor of athletics and also one of the highest-paid state employees – fired Petrino for a laundry list of misdeeds revealed by a motorcycle crash, successor John L. Smith’s salary came nowhere near filling the void. Click here to read the full story from our partners at ArkansasBusiness.com.