Alabama Beverage Control Administrator Mac Gipson made one heckuva point.

The salary he was paid, before the governor finagled him and other members of the cabinet an 80 percent pay raise, was not enough.

I mean, what kind of a rube would want a cabinet post at a paltry salary of $91,000?

What kind of talent could Alabama possibly attract for chicken feed like that?

As AL.com's Mike Cason described in a story about the raises, Gipson said his salary before the raise was generally not enough to attract the kind of candidates the job needs.

To which we can all vociferously agree.

And if you do need proof, just like at the kind of person that job attracted:

Gipson.

Everybody at Gipson's high school reunion must be sitting around laughing at him. I mean, what kind of a putz would serve his state for a salary that's only a pathetic 212 percent of the state's median income?

Gipson.

"What would you pay a CEO of a $430 million profitable corporation?" Gipson told Cason.

What they are worth, I suppose. And $91,000 is starting to seem pretty high.

Lord, it is hard to keep track of what's what and who's who in this state. We're told by the governor himself that we're so broke we'll surely have to hold the legislative session in a cardboard box.

Until ...

We're not.

Just as soon as the Alabama Legislature gave Gov. Robert Bentley an inch - it raised the salary cap on some administrative positions - the governor turned around and took a marathon. He gave 80 percent raises to Gipson, Economic and Community Affairs Director Jim Byard, Revenue Commissioner Julie Magee and Insurance Commissioner Jim Ridling. He gave a 45 percent raise to Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar, pushing her salary to almost $206,000.

State officials believe these folks -- Mac Gipson and Jim Byard at top, Jim Ridling, Julie Magee and Stephanie Azar-- deserve big ol' raises.

One minute the financial sky is falling and the next it's time to make it rain on your friends and cronies.

No wonder Alabama doesn't trust government. From the top to the bottom.

It was just last year when members of the Birmingham City Council gave themselves - technically they gave it to the next council, but it was still all about them - a whopping 200 percent pay raise.

Which was greedy and cheeky and tricky in the way they pullled it off.

The only thing, really, that could overshadow the audacity of Birmingham's own elected officials has been the Legislature itself. That is the body, after all, that lifted the ceiling on the governor's cabinet pay, allowing him to give raises to five people totaling $357,628.

And it is the body that bristled most at Birmingham's avarice.

The Legislature, in all its infinitesimal wisdom, is now considering a bill - sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, from Mountain Brook of all places - that would block Birmingham's pay raise and set limits on how cities across the state set such pay.

Because cities can't be trusted with their money or their own affairs.

Only the governor, and Legislature, can do that.

Right.

Heaven help us all, it has gotten to where you can't tell the good guys from the bad anymore. Because there aren't any good guys to tell.

State officials -- like most everybody else -- don't believe these people deserve the big ol' raises they gave themselves.

Because when you boil it all down it is all the same. All the shame.

Let's face it. Birmingham's only half-decent argument for its pay raise was that the job should pay more to attract better candidates. When you look at the current council members it is almost believable, until you realize it is supposed to be public service and it certainly is public money.

Just like the public money the Legislature - and the governor - handed to cabinet members.

Who are the real rubes here? We are.