Livingston, Owens get fat pay hikes far exceeding their employees

The Austin Statesman reported last evening that Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, received a whopping $73,000 raise in the most recently approved state budget - nearly a 40% increase. He will now make $260K. Also, "Board of Pardons and Paroles Chairwoman Rissie Owens’ salary will jump from $126,500 to $172,000," for a 36% increase. See the rest of the story for more examples of agency executives receiving fat pay hikes far beyond those received by their employees, but these two criminal-justice examples are among the most eye-popping. My question is "Why?" Brad and Rissie a) aren't likely to go anywhere and b) aren't irreplaceable if they do. Why increase their salaries by more than a third? Who gets those kind of raises in this economy? I hadn't tracked the budget process closely during session so Grits didn't realize this was happening. Indeed, I'm not sure very many people did in the entire state. Bad optics.