OMAHA- A report released this week noted large bonuses being paid to leaders of NPPD, in some cases doubling their salaries. “John Dent, Nebraska Public Power District’s chief nuclear officer, made a base salary of $646,000 in 2023, an amount similar to other public power executives in Nebraska. But after a bonus of $640,280, his total compensation doubled his salary to $1.3 million,” the report states.

His bonus alone is nearly double the salary of the governor, and his total pay pushes Dent into a pay bracket higher than even his boss. Sen. Tom Brewer called the increases shocking. Because Nebraska is the only state in the country served entirely by publicly owned utilities, NPPD says the high pay is necessary in order to be able to fill those key jobs — and keep them filled — while maintaining high performance for services that Nebraskans depend on.

Still, advocates say that those kinds of decisions — like making Dent’s 2023 bonus nearly 100% of his base salary, even if it’s awarded under a nuclear-focused incentive program — deserve transparency. Meanwhile, in a program rolling out this year, most NPPD employees below the supervisor level will be eligible to receive bonuses at either 2.5% or 5% of their salaries; and those at the vice president level will be eligible for a 30% bonus.

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