Atlanta Unfiltered

Gary Horlacher, an attorney with the firm of Adorno & Yoss, reported income of $108,012 for 2009. That included a little over $103,000 in salary and wages.

Gail Buckner, serving her first term in the state Senate after eight terms in the House, reported income of $23,450 for 2009. That’s about the same as she reported when she ran for secretary of state four years ago. Legislators are paid $17,342 per year plus per diem. The Jonesboro Democrat’s financial disclosure for 2009, […]

Brian P. Kemp, a former state senator from Athens, reported income of about $33,000 in 2009 from his various real estate interests. But with $92,000-plus in expenses, he reported a net loss of $58,815 for the year.

Doug MacGinnitie reported income of less than $25,000 last year, but that was still enough to buy a $2.2 million home in Sandy Springs.

This Washington-based advocacy group made its name by endorsing a handful of candidates, primarily in House and Senate races, and serving as a conduit for donors across the country to support them financially. It’s put more than $300,000 into Georgia’s 9th Congressional District race on behalf of former state Rep. Tom Graves. It’s also worked out well financially for Pat Toomey, a former three-term congressman from Pennsylvania who became president of the Club for Growth in 2005.

Jack Klippel has done well in the last six years at the Atlanta-based Arthritis Foundation, nearly doubling his total compensation as the organization’s revenue has fallen by about half.

Gardner earned $821,619 in salary in fiscal year 2008, plus a benefit package worth $457,768, according to tax records for Northeast Georgia Health Systems, which owns the Gainesville medical center. That’s 35 times what the average Hall County resident earned.

William D. Novelli, who resigned as CEO in March 2009, was just one of 18 AARP executives who were paid more than $300,000 in 2008. Tax records show Novelli’s total compensation topped $1 million that year with the inclusion of $207,000 in deferred pay. Novelli’s pay package was a recent topic debate on Capitol Hill, where some congressmen complained that AARP executives would benefit personally from proposed health care reforms.

UGA President Michael Adams on Thursday defended a $90,000-a-year raise awarded to athletic director Damon Evans. With automatic annual raises and a retention bonus, Evans could earn $3.2 million under the five-year deal.

Dan Graveline, who retired Dec. 31 after 33 years at the Congress Center, earned more than $434,000 in the last fiscal year. He will stay on as a consultant in 2010, helping his yet-to-be-named replacement in a variety of roles.

Gov. Sonny Perdue says Georgia can save that much next year by keeping six bank examiner jobs vacant. Maybe the thinking is that Georgia doesn’t need as many bank examiners because Georgia doesn’t have as many banks as it used to. Or, on the other hand, maybe we’d have more banks if it had more bank examiners.

Earning nearly a quarter-million dollars, Julie Lewis ranked as Georgia’s best-paid staff attorney for a local school board in 2009, state auditor’s records show. Lewis pulled in $31,000 more than Atlanta Public Schools’ best-paid attorney (whose name was not disclosed) and $87,000 more than Jack Lance with Rockdale County schools.