The Chron's Matt Stiles and Peggy Fikac have the story this morning:

AUSTIN — State government workers were awarded more than $25 million in bonuses and extra compensation in 2008, with the best of it going to Texas executives and university employees, state payroll records show.

More than 14,000 state employees received some form of extra payment, according to a newspaper analysis, mostly dubbed “merit” and “performance” pay or sometimes folded into regular salaries ...

“The rank and file out here have a legitimate complaint,” said state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. “On the one hand, they’re being told that times are tough and your salaries are low and going to stay that way. And then they see a selected few, for reasons that aren’t readily apparent, basically, earning windfalls.”

In the accompanying chart with the story, you can see that the state Department of Criminal Justice, which oversees the prisons, gave out the most bonuses of the state agencies last year -- just under $2.5 million.

Want to see even more about highly paid state workers? Don't forget that Texas Watchdog has a database online of state workers making $100,000 and up in calendar year 2007.

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