57 Comments - Honeybear - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:20 am: Nice, I bet you a quarter it means that SB 1229 is going to be overridden. No leverage with labor means Rauner will have to settle both with AFSCME and on the budget. Plus I’ll bet you another quarter than the work to decide who gets laid off and when has been done by Darth Arduins newly minted Illinois toadies. - Wordslinger - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:21 am: Check in her desk drawers for those billions in savings the governor promised she was going to produce back in February. They’ve gotta be somewhere. - Stones - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:22 am: Was that on-time budget proposal balanced? - Huh? - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:23 am: Good bye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, come again when you can’t stay so long, what took you so long to leave. - Politix - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:23 am: “She helped engineer the elimination of an inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without a tax increase” What? I appreciate the blood, sweat and tears they’re putting into justifying her salary and legitimizing her work, unless I’m missing something, this didn’t actually happen. - walker - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:24 am: Good goodbye note. Nuding is a pro. (Didn’t mention they found the $1.5B by sweeping funds and borrowing, which was Quinn’s back up plan for no tax increase, as well.) - hisgirlfriday - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:24 am: I guess if you eliminate having a budget at all that counts as eliminating a budget deficit? - Politix - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:24 am: but unless I’m missing something, this didn’t actually happen. - 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:27 am: So Nuding and Matt Murphy both cited getting the budget address done on time was one of Arduin’s key accomplishments. That’s a pretty low bar, don’t you think? - anon - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:29 am: yeah–well the sweep bill and the on-time budget were both mistakes- should have handled FY15 and 16 at the same time- Arduien insisted differently–big mistake–should have asked for more time for the FY16 proposal too– - Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:29 am: ===That’s a pretty low bar, don’t you think? === I think every new governor going back to and including Jim Edgar delayed his first budget address. So, no. - Curious - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:30 am: He looks forward to her “continuing advice”… Does that mean a new contract? That balanced budget must be hidden in the secret meeting place…. - Post - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:32 am: … drops mic and walks off stage. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:34 am: While Nuding is a pro’s pro, and Arduin was instrumental behind the scenes for Nuding and many others, I give Arduin all that, the reality of her tenure/contract is really what the very gracious statement Nuding highlights. The tangible changes Arduin was suppose to deliver really turned out to be few, and the unmeasurable intangibles will be what the argument of her tenure/contract will be really all about. - 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:37 am: I think the governors you mention used the extra time to put together balanced (or mostly balanced) budgets. I remember Rauner’s budget address as remarkably brief and nearly substance free. Team Rauner didn’t need more time to put that poor attempt at a budget together, and he still hasn’t put forward a serious budget proposal. - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:37 am: === She helped engineer the elimination of an inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without a tax increase=== Don’t forget she is responsible for world peace and those little capsules that you add water to and it turns into a complete family meal. She doesn’t always drink beer. But when she does, she prefers Dos Equis! - Cassandra - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:37 am: Well, those fund sweeps helped with the last fy budget. Let’s give the funds a bit of credit. Speaking of which-how are the funds looking for sweeping this fy. Looks like we’re gonna need ‘em. - Tournaround Agenda - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:43 am: A fund sweep and an unbalanced budget proposed on time. What a great record of success. - Ghost - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:49 am: We paid 30k a month for sme to say sweep funds, spend the extra money the state earned over its projections and cut social services??? The Rauner folks needed an expert for that? Lots of state employees, including ones they teleased, could habe told them this for no extra cost. - Huh? - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:50 am: Dear Ms. Arduin, The type of economic policy that you promote are only possible when there is a willing governor, a pliant legislature and a agreeable judiciary. While Illinois has a willing governor, the legislature was not prepared to go along with the types of cuts that you espoused. The judges have forced spending without a budget, such that Illinois is on track to be about $5 billion over budget. When you agreed to take this opportunity to work in Illinois government, you should have been a bit more astute by researching the General Assembly. You could have predicted that your efforts would fail. As it stands, you have a few more lines in your resume. Please don’t steal the pens and pads of paper. And leave the “A” on the computer keyboard. With warmest personal regards, Pepole of the State of Illinois - Anonin' - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:50 am: The gushin’ is makin’ all whoosey I am surprised Mr. Nudin’ did not thank the KansasKomet for the FY16 budget with $3 billion hole ($2.2 billion pension scheme and $800+ million health care savings) all while collectin’ $30K per month ( Same # TeamBunlge paid Stu Levine) Now the GUMBY Young Peoples’ Chorus will sing a medley from Sound of Music - UIC Guy - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 11:55 am: ==Nice, I bet you a quarter it means that SB 1229 is going to be overridden.== Honeybear: can you explain? It (the statement, I assume you mean) sure doesn’t look as if it means that. What am I missing? And would Nudding really know whether the bill will be overridden? (Does anyone, even MJM, know for sure at this point?) [Not snark, real questions asked because I don’t know and would like to.] - anon - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:03 pm: the funds sweep allowed the dems off the hook of their unbalanced FY15 budget–it left Rauner with some false sense of security that the state’s finances were somehow stabilized and could be dealt with after the Turnaround agenda –he was wrong.. - Qui Tam - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:05 pm: ===That’s a pretty low bar, don’t you think? === =I think every new governor going back to and including Jim Edgar delayed his first budget address. So, no. = So it was in fact an Arduous undertaking (?) - JS Mill - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:07 pm: For all of the things Rich detailed in the subscriber edition, kudos. I think they will pay long-term dividends. =produced an on-time budget proposal for the governor to present barely more than one month after taking office.= This though, was at the minimum $8 billion out of balance. Just like the Democratic proposal. - Not the "A" Team - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:13 pm: Looks like a negotiated exit, that included a positive send off in writing. Off to the next payday somewhere else with promises, promises. - The Captain - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:15 pm: The people that worked with her seemed to like her so credit to her for that. I’m not sure it’s worth $30,000 a month but it’s worth something. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:25 pm: Read between the lines, key leader…played an instrumental role in…the elimination of…invaluable…advice - Just saying... - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:25 pm: Tim IS a pro and I’m sure at some level Ardous provided him some service. But at the end of the day and what unfortunately is not routinely reported is that the budget she “helped” with is not balanced and till this day her boss the governor does not deny we need a tax increase in order to support a balanced budget…the same tax increase he demanded lawmakers let expire. What Ardous and the rookie administration should have been doing was to look for and identify “REAL” structural reforms like reducing all the unfunded mandates that cost taxpayers and service organizations untold amounts of money; working to address workman’s comp reforms that both sides could agree on; looking at streamlining and combining government agencies and attacking all the special funds in efforts to ensure accountability - among many other structural reforms that were not ideological barriers/non-starters. A REAL leader would’ve been able to guide the ship and build trust among the GA and the public by accomplishing things. Instead rauner has chosen a route with limited results. Then again, this is a guy who has a track record of denying responsibility and blames others for his failures. Just saying… - D.P.Gumby - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:29 pm: Budget? what budget…what balance… - Jorge - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:32 pm: She’s off to fire more state workers elsewhere. What a bright ray of sunshine her work is. - sal-says - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:37 pm: Dearest Timmy: Guessing that you fell off your meds for you to lose touch with reality to the extent in your Ms. Arduous statement. Or maybe, you thinking has been on hiatus / sabbatical for the last 7 months. Which is it? With warmest personal regards, sal-says - Team Sleep - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:37 pm: A very nice statement from one of the nicest guys in the business. - PolPal56 - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:42 pm: Yeah, yeah, the warm fuzzies are nice, but I’d like to know what she actually DID while she was working for the State of Illinois, please. In detail. Because I don’t see any results based on any description of her job that I saw. Well… then again, I happen to think that chaos, impending vats of red ink, heartlessness, and attempting to take from the less well-to-do to line the pockets of the very well-to-do are not admirable goals. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:53 pm: Clearly, her work is done. How would we have passed a balanced budget without her help? - VanillaMan - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 12:57 pm: She failed. Things are not better. - Get a Job!! - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:02 pm: === She helped engineer the elimination of an inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without a tax increase=== Umm no she didn’t. She may have been on contract for this and been involved in the negotiations, but the idea to sweep funds (which made up like 80% of the $1.5 million) actually came from the legislative staff. - Honeybear - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:07 pm: UIC, here’s my theory. Rauners plan A (public demands and supports the turnaround agenda) didn’t work out and thus her contract was extended to the end of Aug. Thus Darth Arduin is around to make adjustments to a budget/spending etc when the Governors leverage of labor unrest blows everything up. But that didn’t work because of SB 1229. If the override of SB 1229 was going to fail, the Gov would have extended her contract in order to take advantage of the chaos of a labor strike. Because they have not extended her, they have counted noses, read the tea leafs and determined that bringing about Ragnarok is not possible. Darth Arduin would need to be there for Ragnarok. She’s leaving. They will bring her back in probably at the next opportunity. Watch for that. This is just my theory. We’ll see if I’m right. I always watch the movement of key side players. I watch “boomer” submarines and the deployment of Marine expeditionary force units. It shows where we (the US) thinks the real threat is. - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:08 pm: Nuding is a pro. Arduin is something else. - RD55 - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:13 pm: GaJ @1:02 agreed it’s not like the methods used to address the fy15 short fall were all that novel. - anon - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:16 pm: actually, some of her best work was leading the Rauner tax increase working group–too bad the Gov’s staff pretended it didn’t exist. - UIC Guy - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:16 pm: Honeybear: well it’s a nice theory. Again: do you think that Rauner and his team really know whether the override will succeed? (I hope you’re right, not only because it’s a nice theory but also because I hope they know that it will succeed. But I really doubt that anyone, except perhaps the Speaker and his closest allies, has real knowledge on this.) - IllinoisBoi - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:18 pm: “She helped engineer the elimination of an inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without a tax increase and produced an on-time budget proposal for the governor to present barely more than one month after taking office.” Not on this planet, or in this galaxy or universe, or in any alternate dimension known or unknown, did she do those things. - Flynn's mom - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:22 pm: Who wrote that statement for Nuding? Has he even seen it? If he wrote it and if he believes it, his credibility is doomed. - Honeybear - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:38 pm: UIC, I through a couple mutual contacts know movements of some side players. Little snipets of this or that make it back to me. They often don’t make sense till later. If I’m lucky I connect the dots from the action to the reaction. Darth Arduin leaving the Deathstar is a big tell. - Zoe - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:44 pm: Since she’s a contract employee - a vendor really - Rauner & Co. would have to explain to the judge why they’re paying her and not the agencies they’re required to pay. Good riddance. - drew - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:46 pm: Meanwhile, someone else on the way out the door… http://www.fightingillini.com/news/2015/8/28/Football_0828155855.aspx - Buzzie - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 1:57 pm: Was her final suggestion to not pay lottery winners? - UIC Guy - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 2:48 pm: Thanks, Honeybear. I’m still not wholly convinced that there’s any reliable information out there, but I hope you’re right. - Liberty - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 2:51 pm: Donna must be ticked her check isn’t in the mail. - Blue dog dem - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 3:07 pm: She developed a balanced budget about as much as Obamacare lowered health care costs. Voodo economics all over again. - VanillaMan - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 3:08 pm: She is leaving behind an Illinois in worst shape then she found it. Glad to see her go. She hadn’t earned a dime of what she took from us. - Daniel Plainview - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 3:14 pm: It’s great that she was nice to the kiddos, and whatever on installing Nuding. I’m not seeing how that’s worth $20 grand a month, especially since she’s leaving without a budget being enacted. - Mama - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 3:39 pm: “She helped engineer the elimination of an inherited $1.5 billion budget deficit without a tax increase” Where were the cuts made? - Mama - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 3:42 pm: If the House overrides SB1229, will a major amount of pink slips follow? - Wensicia - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 4:18 pm: She gets credit for not finishing the job and leaving the state with more serious expenditures in the future as the result of her cuts? Money for nothing and her checks for free. - zonz - Friday, Aug 28, 15 @ 4:32 pm: Can I reasonably assume she isn’t being paid for her work after 6/30/15 until there is a resolution of the budget impasse? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.