Let’s Redefine our Budget problems

The Ax has been raised to begin chopping the low hanging fruit here in the University System of Georgia. Many of the Universities have been given the word that they must reduce their budget and sadly it seems the first to go will be the janitors and part time staff.
I find it interesting that the people making the decisions about this are the ones that should really be justifying their salaries. The state of Georgia is considered a transparency state, which means anyone can see what any Government employee makes. The state budget is decided by a group of supposed intelligent people that meet in general assembly. These meetings are actually available to watch via the internet by going to http://www.gpb.org/general-assembly.
I watched most of the part around Higher Education where the Chancellor had his opportunity to address the group. The group basically took turns asking questions and giving advice on how to lower the budget. The one question that really struck me as odd was this one. “How many people in the University System make more than $400,000 dollars a year?” You would think the answer would have been a quick “None Sir,” but instead it was a stumbling “I’ll have to get back with you on that.” That question made me wonder what the answer really was. I went again to the internet where all that information is available, http://www.open.georgia.gov/sta/searchCriteria.aud.
I learned quickly why the Chancellor didn’t want to answer the question. Last year Chancellor Davis had a salary of $549,206, and believe it or not there are several in the system that make more than him. So no offense Chancellor, but when you say “times are hard for all of us,” you forget to add “except me.”

I did some quick searching and pulled all the people that make more than $250,000 a year. I believe before we swing the ax we need to at least look real hard at the top hundred and fifteen or so that all make over $300,000 a year. Perhaps the first to feel the blade of the ax could be the department chair from the Medical College of Georgia with a salary of $722,968, or the Associate Professor making $685,665 again at MCG. I am obviously working for the wrong institution.
You can find this data by going to this Google Spreadsheet, http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t0Rlq45xtlw5tOtQtcPT5EA&single=true&gid=0&output=html