Rent Seeking in Columbus

By Richard Vedder

Another example of why universities perhaps should be taxed rather than subsidized surfaced recently. Ohio State University announced that its CFO of two decades, Bill Shkurti, is retiring. He has done a fine job handling finances at this ambitious school that, if US NEWS is to be believed, is getting better all the time. At the time of his retirement, he is being paid a bit under $342,000 a year, a hefty amount for a public servant but perhaps not unreasonable for someone running a $4.5 billion annual operation. His successor, who comes from the private sector, is being paid $625,000 annually --over 82 percent more. Could they not fine a good person for, say, $375,000 a year, not much less than the president of the university was making a half dozen years ago.

Millions in economic rent for middle aged administrators --not a penny for poor students paying ever rising amounts to help finance this scam. Shame.