The top investment officer for the state teachers' retirement system -- the state's most highly paid employee in 2007 -- has offered to give up $168,000 in bonuses and incentives, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

Texas Watchdog readers might remember that Britt Harris, chief investment officer for teachers' retirement system, was mentioned in our mid-December story about the state's most highly paid workers in 2007. He made $530,595.24 in 2007, we reported then.

From the story by Kate Alexander:

The chief investment officer of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas will forgo his incentive pay after a burst of legislative outrage over investment bonuses at some state trust funds.

Britt Harris, who oversees the investment of the $81 billion pension fund, offered Friday to give up nearly $168,000 in incentives that would be due to him based on the trust fund's 2008 performance.

In addition, payment of the $2.5 million in incentives due to more than 80 other employees in the investment division will be deferred until the fund generates a positive return, the retirement system Board of Trustees decided in a 6-to-2 vote.

Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog -- now on Ning! Fan our page on Facebook, join our group on MySpace, follow us on Twitter, fan us on Digg and send us stories you think we ought to see, join our network on de.licio.us and our social network on Ning, and put our RSS feed in your newsreader. We're also on NewsVine, tumblr, FriendFeed and YouTube.

[ad#ad1forposts]