News-Record.com

RALEIGH - North Carolina's first lady, already under fire for taking expensive overseas trips at taxpayer expense, has received a raise that nearly doubles her salary at N.C. State.

Mary Easley, 58-year-old lawyer, is an executive in residence and senior lecturer in the provost's office at the university. Her job duties have expanded and she will get 88 percent more money for that.

Effective July 1, her salary went from $90,300 to $170,000, according to personnel records from N.C. State.

The university's top academic officer defended the $79,700 raise Wednesday.

"Her salary is within the range of similar management and law faculty and administrators at N.C. State and other universities," Larry Nielsen, provost and executive vice chancellor at State, said in a statement. "Mrs. Easley's experience in the legal profession and commitment to public service make her uniquely qualified to direct these efforts at N.C. State."

Other state workers, including N.C. State employees, likely will receive a 2.75 percent raise or $1,100, after state legislators approve a new budget.

Gov. Mike Easley, who makes $135,854 annually, had proposed giving most state workers a 1.5 percent increase and a one-time $1,000 bonus.

Mary Easley countered criticism of her new salary in comments to WRAL-TV in Raleigh. "Negative stories and exaggerations and partial stories go with the territory" of public life, she said.

Her husband blamed the criticism on sexism, saying "if she were a man, it wouldn't be an issue."

"It's not a raise. She's taking a new position," he told WRAL. "She could go out with a law firm and make a lot more money, but she's decided to stay with public service."

Mary Easley's job entails development and direction of the Millennium Seminar Series, the university's principal speakers program. She runs a spring semester course called public law for public administrators. She is a faculty member in the Administrative Officers Management Program, teaching legal aspects of police supervision.

Her new responsibilities include directing the development of the Public Safety Leadership Initiative, expanding the program to include first responders and security professionals, co-directing prelaw services at N.C. State, and acting as the university's liaison for partnerships with the legal profession and area law schools, including the development of dual-degree programs.

The raise follows news this week of expensive trips she took to France in May 2007 and Russia and Estonia this May. Those cultural exchange trips cost taxpayers $109,000. Gov. Easley defended the trips, saying such visits can reap larger monetary rewards for the state with art exhibitions.

Staff writer Mark Binker and the Associated Press contributed to this report.