Measure twice, cut once
Friday, Mar 6, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Finke…
Democrats on a Senate budgeting committee criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration Thursday for what they said are excessive salaries being paid to Rauner staffers.
The criticism came as the Senate Appropriations Committee reviewed Rauner’s budget request for next year, which the administration said would cut spending by 10 percent.
Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, singled out the $198,000 salary being paid to Trey Childress, Rauner’s deputy governor. Kotowski said it was substantially more than was previously paid.
“That’s an obscene amount of money,” Kotowski said.
* But perhaps Koto should’ve done a little bit of research first. Erickson reports…
Republican lawmakers came to Rauner’s defense, saying Democratic legislative leaders also pay their top aides comparable salaries. Tim Mapes, chief of staff to House Speaker Michael Madigan, for example, earned $193,500 in 2014. David Gross, who is Senate President John Cullerton’s top aide, makes $179,000.
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said Democrats shouldn’t be critical of Rauner after they pushed through a faulty budget last year that is now threatening to cut off funds for child care providers and a host of other programs.
“Here’s the deal: The hypocrisy is so thick you could cut it with a knife,” Rose said. “The hypocrisy is extreme.”
So Mapes makes more than Rauner’s chief of staff, and almost the same “obscene” amount as Rauner’s deputy governor, with Gross not far behind.
- SkeptiCal - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:17 am:
The thing speaks for itself.
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:21 am:
Glass houses.
- northernwatersports - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:21 am:
IMHO, I think the Dems better be very very careful about choosing which battles they choose to fight. This one is probably not a good choice. Politicians and bureaucrats salaries (in the public’s eyes) is a bad topic to argue…
It plays directly into BR’s narrative.
How about keeping focused on how cuts effect real people, working people, safety, etc.
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:22 am:
Rauner staff salaries are however offset by the Governor not taking a salary.
Hmmm…maybe Madigan and Cullerton could to do the same, you know, in the spirit of “tit for tat”!
- PublicServant - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:22 am:
Now I know why Rauner says state employees make too much money. He WAS talking about these types right?
- highspeed - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:23 am:
yet public sector workers make too much!!
- 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:25 am:
How long has Tim Mapes worked for the state? What was his starting salary? My guess is that his salary has risen over time along with his seniority and experience. I think you’d see something similar with Gross.
Childress, on the other hand, started at a top salary. Not saying he’s not worth it, but context is important.
- x ace - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:26 am:
Thought Rauner had to take a Salary ? Pay Taxes on it ? Then could donate it back ? Thought not taking a Salary was an impermissible myth ?
- Not Rich - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:27 am:
wrong fight.. Senate D’s need to pick a fight on the cuts, not Rauner team salaries..
- LizPhairTax - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:28 am:
Anonymous 10:22,
That $177k saved on Gov salary runs out pretty quick when you pay people $198k
Shake up Springfield! Bring Back Illinois!
- Skeptic - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:30 am:
“Gotta pay for talent” unless of course, your talent pays you less than $100k in which case you make too much.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:30 am:
===It plays directly into BR’s narrative.
How about keeping focused on how cuts effect real people, working people, safety, etc.===
Both sides need to be “careful” but Rauner saying “overpaid” state workers, and having salaries in line with “career politican’s staffers”?
The hypocrisy is thick, for both sides, Sen. Rose, but the Dems aren’t saying stste workers are overpaid. That’s the rub.
It’s up to the Dems to show Rauner sees state workers as chattel and overvalued chattel at that.
It’s up to Rauner and his Owls to make the attacks on his salaries, hires, “contracts” are worth the money, like Dem staffers making the same or more than Rauner hires.
“But…but Rauner is different.”
He isn’t in this. That’s why both should choose first, not to engage in these discussions…at least until Rauner wants layoffs or a lockout.
- black eye - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:32 am:
193, 190, 180, 178…C’mon man. Those salaries are way out of bounds for state gov’t work. Plus, we’re BROKE, right?! Why should staff salaries be higher than the elected officials they work for? Good on Chapin Rose for pointing out the hypocrisy, but bad on all for sticking it to taxpayers this way. Rauner does have an optics problem when it comes to salaries and hiring. Mr. No More Business As Usual…Let’s see: Sara W, 100k, chief of stuff for your wife, Clamp’s sis fits right in at 70, Winters’ wife 121 at Commerce, Z at 180, Superstar Trey at 198. Just because you aren’t taking a salary doesn’t justify any of this stuff. Has anyone taken a look at the pay equity angle in the admin? First glance seems to show ladies make less. Would be interested to hear Gov’s office position on the Pay Equity Resolution sponsored by BFC. I bet staff and the Big Guy might disagree, depending on the gender of the staffer of course.
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:33 am:
It’s simple. Talent should be paid. Hacks shouldn’t.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:34 am:
===It’s simple. Talent should be paid. Hacks shouldn’t.===
“Who” decides which is which, Rep. Sandack?
- Black Ivy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:35 am:
You tell ‘em, Chapin! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Take that!
- Demise - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:38 am:
Not the best move calling the salary obscene. It suggests state workers are overpaid when the other side points to similar salaries. The better criticism is that Rauner rails against public employee wages, but when he is given control of wages, he hands out equal or better salaries because his people are “worth it.”
- Sam Weinberg - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:39 am:
The “gotcha” staff salary game is generally silly. But in this case, Rauner has made the allegedly bloated salaries of state workers a centerpiece of his time in office. He can’t say one thing, while giving generous pay raises to his staff and a $100k chief of staff to his wife. Well he can, but then either his words or his actions are hypocritical.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:39 am:
===You tell ‘em, Chapin! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Take that!===
That attitude is the kind that leads to trouble if there are layoffs and a lockout and Rauner, and not the Dems decry “overpaid Union state workers”.
If you want, we can discuss a 10% bump for a state employee for a First Lady whose full time job is to get funding from the state…
Blowback for both sides isn’t good.
- Just Me - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:46 am:
I would say it unfair to look at individual salaries, but rather judge the Governor’s budget in its entirety. The Democrats are just looking for cheap political shot and press pop. That kind of thinking is why our state is a mess.
I might add that unlike Quinn and Blagojevich, Rauner’s hires have been people with legitimate credentials. Not some random person Quinn ran into at an event and thought was worthy of a state job, or the nephew/niece/in-law of a state legislator.
- David Starrett - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:46 am:
Tim Mapes is Clerk of the House as well as the Speaker’s Chief of Staff. Have the S.Repub’s considered that?
- Wordslinger - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:47 am:
Unforced error by Kotowski. When Rose can sting you, you know you’ve stepped on it.
- Amalia - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 10:50 am:
Kowtowski. hoisted by his own ego.
- Norseman - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:00 am:
=== The hypocrisy is thick, for both sides, Sen. Rose, but the Dems aren’t saying state workers are overpaid. That’s the rub. ===
As usual, well said by Willy!
- Jack Stephens - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:01 am:
I’d agree this not a fight the Democrats should pick. However, the Governors optics are terrible. He is the one who ran on the platform to “shake up Springfield” and that everyone else is corrupt. He should also tread very carefully with whom he hires and most importantly their salary!
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:07 am:
Dave, he’s not getting paid for that other job.
- Challengerrt - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:08 am:
Neither side has a right point fingers about the amounts of salaries. They are all too high, and if our state is in such a mess and they are wanting to cut, they need to start with their own salaries and their staff salaries. Just because Rauner does not take a salary does not make it justified to give his own staff more money than Quinn did his staff!
- Francis - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:09 am:
Cullerton and Madigan haven’t been running around complaining about state employees earning too much money.
What did Michael Corleone say?
“We’re both part of the same hypocrisy, senator.”
- Paytoplay - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:11 am:
If you want to talk about outrageous salaries look no further then the communications department at CMS
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:13 am:
I think the current governor earns that much in a little over TWO DAYS.
Chump change to Governor Rauner!
- Johnnie F. - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:14 am:
It fits Rauner’s ideology…There are privileged public sector workers (the good ones, that please me) and there are those other public sector workers (the bad ones, I loathe).
- Under Influenced - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:18 am:
Tenure my friends. How long has Mapes been serving in that position?…dinosaurs come to mind.
- BigDoggie - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:20 am:
Is it just me that thinks all these petty arguments about this guy’s salary and that guy’s salary are just distractions from the bigger problems that we have? I mean, why worry about pensions when so-and-so is making $180,000 a year!?!
- Georg Sande - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:27 am:
The Dems attempt to turn everything into class warfare continues. Nice reverse move by Rose on this one. But this non-issue and distraction aside, Kotowski ought to be more careful with his public utterances. After all, Rauner bested the Senator in his district. Robos/mail soon to drop?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:29 am:
===…all these petty arguments about this guy’s salary and that guy’s salary are just distractions from the bigger problems that we have?===
Sen. Kowtowski wanted to make a point about salaries and Rauner’s budgeting when the time to make THAT argument is when Union contracts are up and/or shutting down the state “because” of overpaid state workers.
Big unforced error by playing the salary card needlessly now. Dems (Kotowski) should have held his powder.
Sen. Rose, rightly, took to task “similar” salaries, because, well, it worked, given when and how the salary card was played.
The rub remains the same; the Dems aren’t running around like Rauner saying how overpaid Union state workers are.
Kotowski should never have played that card, at that time, under these parameters.
This isn’t the last any of us will hear about this. It’s not just the card, but how that card is played that has the impact.
(Tips cap to - Norseman -)
- Juvenal - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:31 am:
Apples to oranges.
Mapes makes a few bits more than Rauner’s Chief-of-Staff.
There is not, I don’t think, a Deputy Speaker anywhere in the GA org chart, certainly not one making $193K.
- anon - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:34 am:
The Speaker does not claim that state workers are overpaid. The Governor does. Therefore when the Governor pays his state workers more than their predecessors, that’s the real hypocrisy. Chapin can’t see that hypocrisy because it’s from his party.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 11:35 am:
===After all, Rauner bested the Senator in his district. Robos/mail soon to drop?===
Rauner will be busy, in the short term, punishing GOP members of the GA.
- steve schnorf - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:09 pm:
Matter of factly, Governor Quinn paid staff less than he should have, so comparing Governor Rauner’s staffs’ salaries to Quinn’s is misleading. When the presidents of regional universities make $300,000+, key staff to a governor in a state the size and complexity of Illinois making $150,000 to $200,000 a years isn’t out of line at all.
15 years ago we heard the same arguments about $100,000 a year. People who devalue government and government work will always believe the higher-ups at least are overpaid.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:16 pm:
- steve schnorf -
Respectfully as always,
===People who devalue government and government work will always believe the higher-ups at least are overpaid.===
Isn’t Rauner “rub”;
“People who devalue government and government work will always believe the Union workers at the negotiated rates are overpaid.”?
Your point really hits home and actually strengthens Sen. Rose’s point perfectly.
It also reinforces Sen. Kotowski using Rauner’s salaries incorrectly in the context they need to be used to show how Rauner has a “salary issue”.
With respect.
- MyTwoCents - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:19 pm:
I will preface this by saying it is a proposed reduction in budgeted amount, not necessarily expenditures (FY14 Gov’s office operational budget $5,521,100 & expenditures $5,008,959.67). However, here are Gov’s office numbers relevant to the discussion:
FY14 regular positions: $3,522,196.05
Annual salary of all Gov’s Office employees listed by the Comptroller as of 2/27: $3,884,525.04. That was calculated by simply multiplying out the last paid amount. That’s an increase of over $362K.
The FY14 salaries were 70% of the expenditures. The current salaries are 78% of the proposed budget. To hit the goal of $4,969,000 Rauner is going to have to make some serious cuts based on the salaries and extra positions he’s paying and regular positions are the primary element of the budget.
Also keep in mind that SS/Medicare contributions are not included in this analysis and that of course increases with an increase in regular positions. In FY14 that was another 5% of the expenditures. So basically 75% of the budget is directly related to personnel.
@Steve Schnorf, I don’t necessarily disagree however the fact is it is Gov. Rauner who is devaluing the salaries of every single State employee and all this damage is self-inflicted.
- jazzy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:26 pm:
I would like to see on the all persons receiving salaries from the state reside on the transparency & accountability portal. Then if a person wanted to see top wage earners they see everybody not select groups.
- jazzy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:28 pm:
See all persons…oops
- steve schnorf - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:31 pm:
ow, union salaries are negotiated with unions and are very structured. There is typically very little, if any, leeway what an employee in a specific job title with a specific number of years in that title is going to be paid.
Governors set their own staffs’ salaries. Governor Quinn’s were in many instances too low IMHO. I see nothing wrong at all with the salaries Governor Rauner is paying his top staff.
Some people suggest optics is the problem. I’m beginning to get the picture that Gov Rauner isn’t too concerned about the high regard in which things such as optics have been held in the past.
I think the last year I was state budget director, 13 years ago, I was paid about $121,000 a year, and I certainly wasn’t the Governor’s top paid staff. Run those numbers forward 13 years and tell me top staff is overpaid today.
- Empty Suit - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:36 pm:
Sooo Rauner doesn’t take a salary and doles it out to get better quality people. Thank you can we move on.
- Georg Sande - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:38 pm:
“Who” talks an awful lot about “rubs” (!) and alleges “his party” lets him down time and again? The same goof “who” typically misspells at least one word in each of his “respectful” missives that only seek to help the get-alongs, go-alongs that he repeatedly supports. #WillysADope
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:38 pm:
===Some people suggest optics is the problem. I’m beginning to get the picture that Gov Rauner isn’t too concerned about the high regard in which things such as optics have been held in the past.===
That’s the “other side” of the optics coin, isn’t it?
The governor’s words on worker value, he isn’t too worried about blowback.
It will be up to both sides to try to make the point in the structured salaries, their “value” and what the values given say about those placing any value on any position during negotiations.
Thanks for your thoughtful response.
You were a bargin back then, worth every penny. With respect.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
- Georg Sande -,
Before attacking me, if you would like, you could add to the discussion constructively.
That would be swell.
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:51 pm:
But Madigan and Cullerton don’t have a lieutenant speaker and a lieutenant president.
Is the lieutenant governor functioning? Or just being paid?
- A guy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 12:58 pm:
===Some people suggest optics is the problem. I’m beginning to get the picture that Gov Rauner isn’t too concerned about the high regard in which things such as optics have been held in the past.===
Only pasting this again because it bears repeating more than twice.
Mapes is worth every penny. Don’t know the gent with Cullerton, but if his President has set the cost, he thinks he’s worth every penny. Rauner, like Madigan, like Cullerton….don’t care about the optics of what they’re paying their top people. They know their value.
Kotowski boner today. Kind of a big one for a guy who’s been around awhile. What do y’all call that; bad staff work?
- Former Merit Comp Slave - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 1:41 pm:
Keep in mind the legislative leaders’ Chiefs of staff have been in their jobs for years. Their salaries were not their starting salaries. 198 grand is a pretty hefty starting salary
- Lottoman - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 1:46 pm:
You get what you pay for. IL is in a pickle that requires the best minds money can buy to get us out of this mess. The Gov’s picks have a track record of success…maybe not in IL put in other states / companies.
- anon - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 1:50 pm:
=== Quinn paid his staff too little ===
But everyone knows Quinn was a Big-Spending Democrat who never met a way to waste money he didn’t like. Can’t be the same guy.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 1:52 pm:
===…maybe not in IL put in other states / companies.===
Kansas? California?
Kool-Aid is being served chilled this afternoon.
- A guy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 1:57 pm:
Think of how much a guy like Schnorf would have made in private industry. It was only his willingness to work in public service and his close relationship with Rich Miller that drove his salary down. lol.
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 2:24 pm:
Guy, quit while you’re only slightly behind.
- Formerly Known As... - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 2:45 pm:
==But everyone knows Quinn was a Big-Spending Democrat who never met a way to waste money he didn’t like==
NRI?
- A guy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 3:49 pm:
=== Arthur Andersen - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 2:24 pm:
Guy, quit while you’re only slightly behind.===
Et Tu Artie? It’s Friday. Wanting to end on a cheerful note. I think those two boys have a good sense of humor.
- A guy - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 3:52 pm:
And I’ve been crazy busy at the salt mine today. Couldn’t check in regularly, so I had to try to make an impact in but one place. /s lol, whatever a guy needs to do to represent a light-hearted thought.
- low level - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 3:52 pm:
Absolutely correct about length of service for Mapes and Gross. Both have, what? 25-30 years of service? Meanwhile Bozo Bruce hires his people at $150K - not to mention the Donna’s contract.
Soon Bruce will be giving his people raises - probably in June I would think.
- low level - Friday, Mar 6, 15 @ 3:59 pm:
It’s all good though, Chapin. I’m sure all the rank
and file U of I employees will be overjoyed when you go to campus knowing you are supporting a Gov who wants to cut their already meager pay. ILL - I am hi and dry!