Tennessee: TVA executives lose 2009 bonuses

The executives of the Tennessee Valley Authority didn’t get a pay raise or any bonuses this year, utility officials said today.

“Because of the Kingston (ash spill) and the economic situation, we decided to eliminate any bonus pay for executives in place at that time,” said TVA Director Dennis Bottorff, chairman of the TVA board committee on finance, rates and strategy.

A year ago, the TVA board voted to offer TVA President Tom Kilgore another 23 percent in salary and bonuses, making Mr. Kilgore eligible to earn up to $3.275 million. But following the Dec. 22 accident at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant — projected to cost TVA up to $1.2 billion to clean up — Mr. Kilgore’s pay was cut by more than half as all executive bonuses were scrapped, Mr. Bottorff said.

That cost Mr. Kilgore nearly $2 million in potential bonuses and eliminated another $1.2 million in bonuses for his top executives.

Mr. Bottorff and other directors reaffirmed their support for TVA’s top management, despite the Kingston spill and voted today to reinstate potential bonus awards for fiscal 2010.

Even with such bonuses, however, TVA’s compensation for the chief executive is only 45 percent of the industry average, according to consultant firm Watson Wyatt.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press