KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority just had the biggest money year in its history, but the federal utility’s top executive will keep the smallest pay package any TVA chief has drawn since the CEO job was created.
TVA’s board voted Tuesday to leave interim CEO Mike Skaggs at a $500,000 base salary for next year. He can earn up to $499,000 more in performance pay, which still makes his potential total the lowest for a TVA CEO since Congress set up the post in 2006.
The decision came as the agency booked $14.2 billion during a budget year ending Sept. 30, the first time it has cleared $14 billion. Nearly all of that comes from selling wholesale power to 153 local utilities and about 60 large industrial customers across its seven-state region.
The pay question has been shaped by the White House. In March, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum directing the TVA board to set a ceiling of $500,000 in total yearly compensation for every employee, including the CEO, counting salary, bonuses, incentives and benefits, if its pay surveys supported it. The memo argued that multimillion-dollar packages for a federally owned corporation were out of line with public-sector pay, noting the president earns $400,000.
The board never formally adopted that cap. It did hire Skaggs, a former TVA chief operating officer who had retired, to lead the agency in April. At his request, the board also trimmed incentive pay for the three executives who report directly to the CEO: the chief financial, nuclear and administrative officers.
Detailed pay for TVA’s five top executives is due in the agency’s annual report to federal securities regulators. TVA is the largest government-owned utility in the country, and the rates it charges flow through to power bills for millions of homes and businesses in Tennessee.
Section: More Nashville TN business news
Nashville business profiles
Filed under: Nashville TN Business News
