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MONTGOMERY — One of the highest-paid officials in Gov. Robert Bentley’s administration is an assistant finance director in charge of technology who lives in Texas and usually works only three days a week in Montgomery, Bob Lowry of The Huntsville Times reports.

Rex McDowell, who earns nearly $173,000 a year as a Finance Department employee, commutes at his own expense from his Dallas home, where he owns a communications company, Softswitch Communications.

Many commenters say the situation is outrageous, while others say if he is the best person for the job and is doing his work well, what’s the problem?
Here is a sampling of comments:

WillGill: This needs to be remedied…post haste! It’s time Mr. McDowell moved on.

Saluki: Before everybody gets all riled up, we ought to consider that many people in high-tech computer jobs work remotely, and they also make a lot of money. Before running this guy off, perhaps we should see if we could even find somebody to do his job for that salary. Besides, Gov. Bentley is working for free, isn’t he?

brandonm2: I don’t know that anybody should be paid that much taxpayer money, but I have no problem at all with somebody telecomuting. A lot of people who ride a desk could do it from home………or even Texas.

leeman102: So much for keeping it in the state. We have enough high tech folks here in Huntsville, Al that could do the work and keep the money and the job in the state. Huntsville is only a 3 hour car ride to Monkeytown.

asmrbd: What’s the big deal? Most government people on Redstone work 3.75 days a week and make far into the 6 figures. The whole system is broke. At least he responds and does show up.

Juli_Rogers_41: Riled up? I’ll tell you who is riled up over this revelation. It is the majority of state employees who work 40 hours a week and are having their pay cut but are making 150,000k less than this man. Gov and the legislature want to cut “waste” in state government. What a better example!

Bannedbefore: If anyone has questions about why the governor goes out of state to hire qualified people, all they have to do is read this blog. Its about performance, folks, not residence.

gunowner: Unfortunately this problem doesn’t just rest in Montgomery. Many businesses in Alabama use services from out of state, even when we have comparable expertise in house.

Here is a tiny example – I know that the City of Gardendale uses a Mississippi company just to build its websites while there are more than 5 web developers living inside the city.

If Alabama wants to create more jobs in Alabama, this is a serious enough problem state wide to justify pushing big business to look local first, instead of at their college roommates. This state has the talent.

[READ THE FULL STORY: State official lives in Texas, flies to Montgomery three days a week for nearly $173,000 salary]

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