RALEIGH – It should come as no surprise that positions of power come with perks. Sometimes those perks come in the form of high-paying side gigs that may have more to do with influence than services provided. That could be the case with Speaker of the N.C. House Tim Moore (R) and a couple ‘odd jobs’ that, reportedly, are very lucrative.
From the Checks and Balances Project:
“Seven months after becoming North Carolina House Speaker, powerful Rep. Timothy A. Moore was hired in his native Cleveland County as County Attorney.
Moore’s cousin, then-County Commission Chairman Jason Falls, had played a key role in Moore’s hiring. Falls explained that the county, in addition to contracting Moore as County Attorney, had also hired a staff attorney for the first time. The staff attorney would take “the lion’s share of the work.” The “new position will save the county money,” Falls added, “because Moore won’t work as many hours as [his predecessor] did.”
Speaker Moore declared:
“It’s an honor to get to be the county attorney, but it’s not a full-time job.”
Records obtained by Checks and Balances Project, however, show that the part-time job has turned out to be a fruitful one for Moore. In a county where the annual per capita income is $20,677, Moore’s part-time job brought in $275,172.50 over three years or an average of $91,724 a year.
Moore’s contract with Cleveland County reflects a 13.6% raise in the hourly rate over his predecessor ($250 per hour vs. $220 per hour) and a 5.2% increase in his retainer ($25,000 vs. $23,760). […]”
Now that is one helluva part-time job. The project director points out that the only other state lawmaker to concurrently serve as a county attorney was former state senator Fletcher Hartsell (R). Hartsell was sentenced to prison in 2017 for unrelated campaign finance fraud. Still, that is not good company for Moore to be in.
Moreover, when the Republican Party ostensibly stands for small government and making money via the private sector instead of government (taxpayer) paydays, it is not a good look for one of the leaders of that party to be enriching himself using the leverage he has as a powerful state lawmaker.
You can read more about how good it is to be Speaker of the House here.
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