By Howard Fischer
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PHOENIX — The head of the Senate Education Committee thinks salaries of the presidents of state’s the three universities are “obscenely high.”

So Sen. David Farnsworth is proposing to cap their pay at $500,000 a year — far lower than any of them are now making.
His Senate Bill 1453 also has a provision to prevent the Board of Regents from getting around that limit.

The legislation by the Mesa Republican would limit bonuses and benefits to no more than 15% of their salary. Those add-ons could be paid “only for performance that both exceeds the president’s assigned duties and directly benefits the institution’s students, staff or faculty.”

The idea is getting a chilly reception from Gov. Katie Hobbs even though her $90,000 a year salary is just a fraction of what the university presidents get — and despite the fact she is responsible for a state general fund budget that is approaching $18 billion.

“I support cutting out expenses wherever we can wherever possible,” she said Tuesday. But the governor said she wants to be sure the state is getting “the best of the best.”

“And I don’t think the Legislature should be in the business of kneecapping our universities in being able to do that,” Hobbs said.
At the heart of what Farnsworth is targeting is what regents are paying.

Topping the list is Michael Crow of Arizona State University. He has a base annual salary of $892,532. On top of that he gets $70,000 a year as a housing allowance, $10,000 for an automobile allowance and contributions to his retirement program equal to 21% of his base salary.

Then there is the possibility $245,000 in additional compensation for meeting certain goals, at least one of which is measured by whether ASU sports consistently rank in the top three in the Big 12 conference.

University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella got a deal for a base salary of $810,000. There is no housing allowance as the school has a residence for its president, though he gets the $10,000 for a vehicle and retirement benefits equal to 18% of his base salary.

And Garimella is eligible for another $225,000 for meeting goals including bringing the university budget under control — at one point under former President Robert Robbins it was $177 million in the red — and establishing the university as a dominant force in revenue-generating sports and within the Big 12 conference.

Jose Luis Cruz Rivera, president of Northern Arizona University, has a base salary of $712,925 along with retirement contributions and allowance for housing and a car. And he can get another $190,000 for meeting goals.

Farnsworth acknowledged he has “a skewed perspective” on people making that much because of how he grew up.

“Then I got married young and my children grew up poor by today’s standards,” said Farnsworth. “And so when I look at these salaries in general I think they’re obscenely high.”

Hobbs did not dispute her salary equals 10% or less than what any of the university presidents are paid. There also is no housing alliance nor a governor’s mansion, though she is driven around by her state-funded security detail.

But Hobbs said this isn’t a question of pure numbers. She said the only way to measure whether the salaries of the university presidents are too high is by results.

“Arizona is home to cutting-edge, world-class universities who are engaged in significant research that is keeping us on the cutting edge of medicine, on technology, on advanced manufacturing, on solving our state’s and our world’s climate crisis,” she said.

But the governor sidestepped a question of whether those successes are the result of who is the president of each institution versus deans and professors who are actually involved in that work.

Farnsworth sniffed at the suggestion that paying higher salaries results in better-qualified candidates.

“I’ve heard that argument,” he said. “It doesn’t impress me because, quite frankly, I have not been impressed with the job the university presidents have been doing.”

He cited as one example the “big money problems” at UA.

But Farnsworth said his views about excessive salaries is not limited to the university presidents. Farnsworth said they also apply to those running public agencies.

“I think if somebody wants a big salary they ought to be working in free market, not in government,” he said.

Ditto, Farnsworth said, of organizations that bill themselves as nonprofit entities.

“When I come across one of them, I always ask, ‘OK, how much does your CEO make,’” he said.

“I kind of have a standard if you’re making a large salary you’re probably more interested in the money than helping people,” said Farnsworth.