* Gov. Rauner told reporters today he’s “scared” that out-migration from Illinois will “get a lot worse, the exodus is going to accelerate” under the Pritzker administration…

There’s so much talk about raising taxes. Raise the income tax, raise the gas tax, raise the whatever. Goodness, if you’re a working family struggling to make ends meet and your company’s not growing, they’re not adding people, they’re not raising your salary very fast, but things are booming in Tennessee, or Georgia, or Florida or Texas, you say ‘Hey, spouse, maybe we ought to head out.

I’m very scared about this. This is a problem. The exodus could accelerate.

One of my strongest recommendations in the report you all have is stop the discussion about tax hikes. Don’t go to tax hikes. Get the reforms. We don’t have to cut. And this is where I’ve agreed with the Democrats. I’m a social services, human services guy. I don’t want to cut human services. Cut the cost of the government bureaucracy and grow the economy faster. Billions and billions of dollars can be made available for more human services, more education funding. That’s the answer.

* Rauner said he hopes the new administration will “see the light” and change positions on taxes and other things…

I’ve blocked so many bills that would cause more bad regulations, and I’m worried that if I’m not there blocking them, boy, they’re going to pass a whole lot of bad regulations. That’ll push more employers out, and then you’ve got that death spiral going. And then with the corruption, self-dealing, and that’s what’s been hurting us, that’s what we’ve fought against. Again, we’ve made progress, but we’re encouraging the new administration to keep fighting.

* When asked what he thought about Gov.-elect JB Pritzker’s legislation to allow for a 15 percent increase in salaries for top agency administrators, Rauner said, “I do believe we underpay directors for the role they do,” adding that he tried to address the issue early on his term by attempting to create a foundation “where donors could contribute so taxpayers didn’t have to pay more,” but was rejected by the “powers that be” in the General Assembly.

However, he prefaced his remarks by saying, “I hope this isn’t the tip of the iceberg on new spending proposals,” and claimed later that Illinois has the “highest paid government employees… not at the director level, but up and down the levels of bureaucracy.” The governor said it would “fundamentally wrong” and send “absolutely the wrong message” to spend more on the government bureaucracy.

More on the governor’s presser in a bit.

…Adding… Raw audio from CMS is here.