June 29, 2009
State Sens. Jim Brochin and Jamie Raskin last week asked Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to investigate whether the state has an interest in Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III's compensation package. The senators want to know if it amounts to an unlawful use of assets paid by the customers of BGE, the regulated utility that is a Constellation subsidiary. This follows weeks of drumbeating by Gov. Martin O'Malley about an $87 million payment Mr. Shattuck could get under certain circumstances.
Constellation reacted with predictable outrage, but this might not be such a bad thing for the company. Its position is that Mr. Shattuck's pay is shouldered entirely by the unregulated side of Constellation's business - its energy trading and other activities - and that it's not the state's business. If that is true, it would seem like it would be in the company's interests to have Mr. Gansler - a Montgomery County Democrat who has no dog in the O'Malley-BGE fight - look into the matter. Even if Mr. Gansler comes up with an interpretation the company doesn't agree with, it can take the matter to court and get it resolved once and for all so that the company's critics in the state government can't continue to bludgeon Constellation with it whenever they disagree. Unless, of course, BGE customers are funding Mr. Shattuck's paychecks, which would be a different matter entirely.
-Andrew A. Green
Readers respond
At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if it's our business or not. Mayo certainly doesn't care. Let's just say O'Malley gets Shattuck's pay cut in half to 43.5 million. So what!!! It's still more money than one could ever spend in a lifetime. Of course, we're not counting the millions he's received in previous years.
One could say he's a "philanthropist" because of his donations. Let's not kid each other, they're tax breaks. On a very basic level tax breaks were "invented" because a person was making too much money. That should be our first clue regarding one's compensation.
PelhamYes he is overpaid, no doubt about it. Just like our elected officials.
This request looks like a cheap populist pop to me to show the voters that we are on their side.
The real travesty was the 1999 deregulation of BGE by the DEMOCRATS in Annapolis who should be facing the wrath of voters come election time. Wait, we already had elections and nothing changed. O'Malley was elected on lies and broken promises, and now with re-election coming up he is scrambling to cover his butt. A cheap populist ploy to obscure the truth from the voters.
JayConstellation, while publicly traded, is in the private sector. If we let our government continue to get involved in everything, where does it stop? For example, how would nurses like to have their pay examined because hospital bills are high?
Matt
