Gov. Nikki Haley is paying a $125,000 salary to her chief of staff, Tim Pearson.  That’s a $27,000 increase over what her predecessor, Gov. Mark Sanford, paid his chief of staff. Trey Walker, a Republican workhorse who has slogged for both John McCain and former Attorney General Henry McMaster, will get just over $122,000 a year as her deputy chief of staff and head of legislative affairs.

Both are making more than Haley’s annual $106,000 salary as governor. Critics have decried the big salaries in a time of statewide economic crisis, while Haley’s office has defended the salaries, saying she’s trimmed the overall number of staffers from Sanford’s administration. Then again, Sanford was famed for being preternaturally cheap.

This item appears in the current edition of SC State House Report www.statehousereport.com