Bonuses

North East -- The Maryland Racing Commission listened to an update on the industry at its monthly board meeting yesterday and lamented the previously announced $3 million cut in purses and stakes that will be put into place beginning in August, when racing resumes at Laurel Park. Then the commission approved the request by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association for another cut - in bonuses paid to Maryland-breds that win races at the state's tracks. The bonuses - paid to a winning horse's breeder, to the owner of the horse's sire and to the horse's owner - are funded by 1.1 percent of the tracks' live handle.

Aboard Flight Reach-5107 Heavy -- Boring through darkness at 30,000 feet toward Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Eric Erbaugh, a loadmaster on this C-17 flying combat supplies, did a quick calculation and grinned. In a few hours, he would avoid paying Uncle Sam the taxes on $41,161.50. Erbaugh is based at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina and flies regularly on cargo missions to the Middle East. After eight years in the Air Force, he was re-enlisting for another five. That earned him a $41,161.

Troubled investments in foreign shipping companies cost First Maryland Bancorp $29.2 million last year, leading the company to withhold bonuses for top executives for the first time in four years.The top five executives at First Maryland Bancorp, the holding company for First National Bank of Maryland, received annual bonuses as high as $450,000 in 1997. But, according to a proxy statement, the company failed to meet its established performance goals last year and no bonuses were awarded.

DETROIT -- A new Ford Motor Co. evaluation policy could leave some of its top 20,000 executives in a sort of cold sweat they haven't experienced since college.Ford is instituting a global performance-review system for next year that's similar to the college practice of grading on the curve: Ten percent of the executives will get A's, 80 percent will get B's and 10 percent will get C's.Those getting C's will see their raises, bonuses and stock options go to the folks who get the A's and B's. And if someone gets a C two years in a row, he or she may be demoted or fired, according to an internal company memo.

For Barclay Tagg and William M. Backer, the seven races of the MATCH series (Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships) seemed back in May to stretch on forever.But after Crab Grass, which Tagg trains and Backer owns and bred, won the first two races in the sprint division for fillies and mares 3 and older, they became captivated. Now, after three races in each of the five divisions of MATCH, Tagg and Backer stand atop the leader board for their share of $550,000 in trainer and owner bonuses.

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. held bonuses flat for its top three executives last year, paying them $7.61 million, despite a record year for the company.George A. Roche, chairman and president, and Vice Chairmen James S. Riepe and M. David Testa each received a bonus of $2.25 million in addition to salaries of $287,500.For each of the three, total 1998 compensation was $2.54 million, up $12,500 from what they were paid in 1997, according to a proxy statement filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It wasn't exactly pandemonium at the Hunt Valley headquarters of Millennium Inorganic Chemicals yesterday, but the feeling among workers such as communications assistant Candace V. Cangialosi was of pride in a job well done.Yesterday was the first time the chemical company -- which makes white pigment at its plant at Hawkins Point in Anne Arundel County -- granted bonuses to administrative, professional and executive employees based on how the company fared financially in 1998. Millennium Inorganic Chemicals exceeded the financial targets the parent company had set, so the bonuses were bigger than most workers had expected.

WHEN A 24-year old Westview branch bank teller named Lauren Neason rescued $16.8 million in phony money from slipping through NationsBank's corporate fingers, her grateful employers naturally decided to reward her in the most appropriate way they could imagine.They gave her nothing.Maybe you noticed this the other day, in Sun reporter Michael James' account of how Neason, with assistance from a security officer named Richard Parker, spotted laundered money being moved by two guys with dreams of slipping the funds past sleepy bank officials, changing their identities, then going off to Switzerland for the duration.

Baltimore County teachers overwhelmingly oppose a plan to pay 100 of them $3,500 bonuses to work in low-performing schools, and few would be willing to transfer to such schools, according to a survey conducted last week in 35 schools by their union.The vast majority of the 700 teachers who responded to the survey said the money wouldn't make a difference in their decisions about where to teach and suggested that it go instead to lowering class sizes and providing more books and supplies in low-performing schools.

Despite posting a hefty net operating loss in 1998, the state Injured Workers Insurance Fund has handed out a new round of bonuses for last year's performance to dozens of its top employees ranging to more than 14 percent.The bonuses, according to records in the state Office of the Comptroller, include a $20,962, or 14.3 percent payment, to IWIF president Paul M. Rose, whose annual salary is $147,000.Other executives at IWIF got bonus payments ranging from 7.67 percent for vice presidents including Donna C. Wilson to 10.78 percent for the chief operating officer, Doreen Horvath.

In the movies, cops slip their snitches $20 or $50 in a back alley and give them a black eye so their friends don't think they're squealing. In real life, informants are registered and have government-sounding titles - "DEA-numbered source," for example. They operate under offices with cryptic acronyms such as CIRC, for Confidential Informant Review Committee. They even have their own bureaucracy, like the Drug Enforcement Administration's Confidential Source Unit. In real life, informants get their money, sometimes in five- and six-figure amounts, in the form of checks from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Layoffs likely after GM fails to find enough early retirees DETROIT - About 6,000 General Motors Co. blue-collar workers have taken the latest round of early retirement and buyout offers, but it fell short of the company's goal, meaning more layoffs are likely. GM has about 54,000 factory workers and wants to end the year with 40,500, a cut of about 13,500. Monday's report means that about 7,500 too few workers took the offers, setting the stage for more layoffs. It was not immediately known how many workers from the GM transmission plant in White Marsh took the buyout.

Two proxy advisory firms are recommending Legg Mason shareholders withhold votes for three directors who sit on the compensation committee because it awarded bonuses to top executives even though the Baltimore money managers reported a net loss for the fiscal year ended March 31. RiskMetrics Group and Glass Lewis & Co., which provide guidance on proxy proposals and corporate governance issues, said shareholders should hold back votes for John E. Koerner...

Tax protesters just sore losers The Baltimore Sun's editorial "Happy tax day" (April 15) tied in nicely with the news about the "tea party" tax protesters ("Mailed tea raises alarms," April 15). Protesting against government policies perceived as offensive, unjust, unfair or just plain wrong, for whatever reason, is an honorable, even necessary, activity in any country. However, a prerequisite to engaging in such protests should be an understanding of the issues involved. In the case of the Fox News-inspired and Republican Party-encouraged "tea party" protests, such understanding seems to be lacking.

Retention bonuses have become the new sore spot for many workers, who are angry that companies receiving federal bailout money are doling out millions in such payments to persuade executives to stay at their jobs. Insurer American International Group paid $165 million in retention bonuses, while mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to pay more than $210 million to more than 7,600 workers. At least 19 financial firms that have received government money promised to pay certain executives to remain at their jobs, according to an analysis by a compensation research firm that was commissioned by The New York Times.

WASHINGTON - Maintaining that recovery from the worst economic downturn in decades will require time and patience, President Barack Obama asserted Tuesday night that his education, energy and health care spending plans are crucial for the nation's long-term health. In a prime-time news conference, the president said the $3.55 trillion federal budget he has proposed is part of the solution. "We've put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to attack this crisis on all fronts," Obama said.

WASHINGTON -A congressional hearing intended to put the nation's top economic policymakers on the hot seat over bonuses paid to employees of American International Group Inc. turned instead into a preview of the Obama administration's effort to revamp the powers of federal regulators. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress on Tuesday that the government needed broad new powers to seize and dismantle large financial institutions that could seriously damage the entire economy should they collapse.

Blame politicians for the bonuses Let me see if I've got this right: I'm supposed to be OK with the 9,000-plus earmarks in the president's budget proposal because the total amount earmarked is such a small percentage of the total, even though the spending will be on such things as studying swine odor and the DNA of catfish. But I'm supposed to be outraged because AIG is spending less than 1 percent of the total bailout dollars it received to pay contractual bonus obligations, obligations that Sen. Christopher J. Dodd helped to exempt from regulation ("Tax on bonuses eyed," March 18)

15 AIG workers agree to return bonuses NEW YORK : New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says 15 employees who received some of the largest bonuses from American International Group have agreed to return the money in full. The commitments amount to more than $30 million of the $165 million in bonuses awarded this month by the troubled insurer. Cuomo says he hopes that more AIG employees will return the bonuses. He says that he expects his office will be able to recoup about $80 million of the money the insurer paid out. Last week, Edward Liddy, AIG's chief executive officer, told Congress that some of the employees were going to give the money back.

Under Armour Chief Executive Officer Kevin Plank took home a base salary of just $26,000 last year after the Baltimore-based sports apparel company he founded did not meet revenue goals. Plank voluntarily cut his salary from $500,000 to $26,000 last year, saying he thought he should be paid based on the performance of the company, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Plank was still eligible for a bonus of as much as $1.47 million, but the company had to meet revenues of at least $775 million for the year.