Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: *** UPDATED x1 *** Kirk criticizes Giannoulias and Brady - and Plummer - on tax issue
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Posted in:
* The governor has finally accepted reality…
Gov. Pat Quinn today said the Illinois Senate will not head back to Springfield to vote on a nearly $3.7 billion pension borrowing plan until after the November election.
…Adding… I suppose this means I can finally get a haircut. My wife will be pleased, as will my mother.
But not on every topic…
Meanwhile, Quinn defended giving raises to certain members of his staff amid the state’s budget crisis, saying the bumps in pay corresponded with increases in responsibility. An Associated Press report found that Quinn has given 43 salary increases averaging 11.4 percent to 35 staffers in the past 15 months.
But Quinn said that despite the pay hikes, the budget for the governor’s office is less than it was when he took over for disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in January 2009.
“I raised individual members of my staff when they had a new assignment that required them to do a different jobs,” Quinn said. “Having said that, the overall budget of the governor’s office is 25 percent lower than it was when I was sworn in. I think that’s what the taxpayers are looking for. If you don’t cut the budget, then you’re not getting the job done. I’ve cut the budget of the governor’s office. I’ll continue to do so.”
*** UPDATE *** Bill Brady’s campaign responds…
“Today’s revelation shows there are two rules under Governor Pat Quinn - one for him and the powerful insider crowd, and another for all the rest of us.
While working families are tightening their belts and doing more with less, Pat Quinn is doling out massive pay raises to his own staff - and we’re paying for them. Today’s revelation shows, once again, that Pat Quinn is incapable of solving our fiscal crisis, and has lost control of state government. How many other agencies received pay raises?”
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 3:40 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: *** UPDATED x1 *** Kirk criticizes Giannoulias and Brady - and Plummer - on tax issue
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
How did he ever get into elected office in the first place???
Comment by Really?? Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 3:47 pm
He’s using Blagojevich as his “better than” standard? Could the bar be any lower. As to the increased responsibility that supposedly motivated these salaries, could we have an independent audit please. And how did top level staffers do out in the agencies?
If Quinn wins this fall, he’ll be in charge of negotiating the next AFSCME contract, covering the vast majority of state employees. Over the past 8 years, ending in 2012, state employees salaries increased 29 percent. Many first line managers, who entered the bargaining unit courtesy of the Democrats during this period, got much higher raises over the same timeframe. AFSCME negotiators will no doubt remind Quinn of his kind treatment of his staff salary-wise when they start haggling. And given our Pat’s fondness for unions, we taxpayers won’t have a chance.
Comment by cassandra Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 3:51 pm
Actually Cassandra, my ‘new’ boss (first line manager as you called him) just ending up for what amounts to a paycut this year. He took the ‘promotion’ up and with his unions deferred pay raise and required furlough days, he has more responsibilty and less money this FY than last. Wondering how Quinn justifies his guy a huge pay raise for additional responsibilty but our little guy got a kick in the pants for his additional?
Comment by Cindy Lou Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 3:59 pm
Brave. The epitome of kicking the can down the road….
Comment by John Galt Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:19 pm
Folks were promoted. Politics aside, why would their salary not increase commensurate with the additional responsibilities?
The original article read like gotcha spin.
Are there fewer people on staff that would explain the 25% reduction that Quinn claims? Is the office spending less? Is he lumping in less expenses due to the vacant Lt Gov office?
Comment by Rob_N Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:21 pm
Let’s see my position has had two raises in seven years and 24 furlough days. So am I buying Quinn’s justification for his raises?
Comment by mid-level merit comp employee Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:21 pm
I didn’t even get my cost of living adjustment this year. Thanks Gov. Quinn, maybe if I was a relative of Dan Walker I too could get a raise.
Comment by grant h Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:37 pm
@ Rob_N:
You make a fair point. But, I still believe that Gov. Quinn continues to use the practice that Governor Blagojevich used and has some expenses of the Gov’s office, including employees, paid by other agencies. Thus, the decreases he is talking about may be false.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:41 pm
Brady campaign: Quinn has lost control of state government
Has Quinn ever had control of state government? Right now, the system is definitely out of control. But as a state senator, Brady is equally responsible for that loss of control. Brady and the legislative bunch gave Quinn a very fragile tiller for navigating this fecal storm that was equally of the legislature’s making.
Comment by Vole Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:52 pm
Vole,
I agree completely providing you can accept the plain reality that the dems control the mansion and both houses. And now, having completed my task of re-starting the worthless debate, I bid you goodnite.
Comment by dupage dan Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 4:58 pm
Anonymous - you make a good point about the off Governor’s office budget spending. To my personal knowledge, it has been going on since the Thompson days (I only go back that far) … and it probably goes back a lot farther. It used to be common practice to have various agencies list Gov. office personnel as part of the individual agency’s Director’s office. Equipment expenses such as cars and computers were often buried in the IDOT and CMS budgets. It is probably next to impossible to figure out what the real costs to run the Gov. office are the way they bury both the personnel and equipment expenses.
Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 5:13 pm
The facts are pretty much irrelevant here. Perception is everything in politcs, and the perception is that Quinn takes care of “his” people while shafting others.
Is he that stupid, or did his people threaten to walk if he didn’t pay them off?
There’s one other possible thing in play here.
Payrollers can get into deep doo-doo for doing campaign work on the taxpayer’s dime. It is not uncommon for staffers on the public payroll to take time off from the public payroll to do their bosses’ political work.
In order to give them “backdoor” pay for political work, you give them fat raises and then they take time off as “own time” to work on the campaign.
The result is the same for the payroller as being paid to do political work.
Anyone want to take bets that the folks getting those 11.5%+ raises are also working in Quinn’s campaign?
Comment by PalosParkBob Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 5:13 pm
Had a staff meeting last week and was informed by higher mangement that increases for promotions are 4%. They use to range from 5% to 8%. I am doing the work of three people and was NEVER given any additional money for doing additional work.
Comment by this voter will remember Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 5:32 pm
What the heck is wrong, exactly, with the governor running his office on only 75% of the previous administration’s budget? Why criticize him for reducing expenses by 25%? And yeah, so what, his predecessor was Blago. Does that mean whatever reduction Quinn would have achieved would be due for criticism simply because, you know, the guy before him was a Very Bad Awful Terrible Governor? Give the guy credit for a 25% reduction in costs, which is a very real cut. There has to be SOME economizing going on to achieve that.
Comment by Steve Downstate Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 5:51 pm
Once every clown is safely ought of the car come November, I suspect, like many have for a year, that there will be plenty of interesting votes in November.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 5:58 pm
I got a list of people he could cut some more, we wouldn’t even feel it.
They came in with the trash.
Comment by Gregor Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 6:08 pm
It looks like you’re going to need all the sleep you can get through November, Rich, so having a happy wife and mother could be a very good thing.
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 6:11 pm
Would that budget decision be “post-poned” until after November 2? “Da” dems seem to think if you don’t have a budget, you can spend our tax dollars without responsibility and line pockets of all your political friends. How long can this state not pay its bills without collapsing?
Comment by seebee Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 6:34 pm
Sure am glad Illinois has a balanced budget as a requirement in the Constitution.
Oh wait…..
Comment by plutocrat03 Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 6:42 pm
Hmmm… I wonder if Quinn hates John O’Connor the way Blago hates Carol Marin?
Judging by the pro Quinn comments aka spin here, I’d say this AP story is pretty damaging, and has the potential to undermine the Quinn camp’s message even more before all is said and done.
You Quinn people may have think you’ve tamped down the flame, but don’t be too sure now. In actuality you haven’t and you can’t.
As an aside, one of the things that was interesting when Obama first took the office of the presidency was the statement that he issued concerning white house salaries. if memory serves he was sensitive to, and cognizant of, public perception from the get go. In these hard economic times, whether we are talking last year or now, Obama understood he had to make an example of his white house staff and use the white house staff to set an example and proper tone for what would not be acceptable in a time of economic crisis in the united states, with so many americans unemployed or underemployed.
Comment by Will County Woman Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 8:15 pm
The Governor may say that he has reduced the size of the budget for his staff, but that may because of the number of Governor’s office staff on agency payrolls. Our agency has more Governor’s office staff on our payroll than I ever remember in previous years. If the Governor really believes in transparancy, he would have all of his staff on the Governor’s office payroll and not hidden in agency’s budgets.
Comment by long time bureaucrat Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 8:41 pm
“Pat Quinn is doling out massive pay raises to his own staff - and we’re paying for them.”
Non-taxpayer Brady shouldn’t say “we.”
Comment by just sayin' Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 9:23 pm
just sayin’, nice try but…remember quinn’s appointment of claude waler as canoe czar earler this year (post primary?)
if memory serves that was supposed to be an $89,000/yr gig. in whatever position he holds, if memory serves, walker was making less than that, e.g.,high 60s/low 70s range????? i’m not sure i understand the pay increase computations explaination put forth by the administration today. $89k for a canoe czar? cause they are so in demand and so busy in illinois these days????
Comment by Will County Woman Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 9:39 pm
The story of the day should be the inaction on the pension borrowing. While the Senate waits until it is safe to vote on the borrowing, the following will happen over 6 months assuming bonds are issued in January: 1) The unfunded liability will grow from $78 billion by another $3.3 billion, 2) the pension systems will lose $63.3 million in investment returns without the payments.
The unfunded liability is growing by $18,164,383 every day and the Senate wants to wait until after the November election for the state to make this year’s payments. What are they thinking?
Comment by Did The Math Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 10:18 pm
–What are they thinking? –
Reelection. Any other questions?
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 10:53 pm
Speaking of “What are they thinking”, is JBT still flying stealthily under the radar, successfully inflicting massive damage on her opponent(s) via her drones, and performing amazing MAR feats saving each and every last one to fight another day?
(You go, Girl!)
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 11:29 pm
Sorry. That obviously should have read “amazing MARS feats”….
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 11:30 pm
DARN!
I did repeat WCW’s handle three times last time she showed up, didn’t I?
Sorry, guys. lol
Comment by The REAL Anonymous fka Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 6, 10 @ 11:40 pm
I can tell you with certainty that state salaries have no relationship to responsibility.
Comment by Reality Is Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 12:33 am
The rank and file employees in many state agencies are told to do more with less, take on more duties and responsibilities due to duts and previous early retirement incentives, take furloughs, take cuts or defer raises and like it.
But not for those in Springfield. Remember people, to use your vote in November.
And Cassandra, you are using raises that havent even happened yet in your argument. And some of those raises may/have been deferred or given up to keep jobs.
Comment by Concerned Voter Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 7:00 am
yes I was just told to take 12 furlough days by the Governors office. I guess to pay for his staff raises.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 7:34 am
Once again, smoke and mirrors are the watchwords of the day. It’s all about how it looks, not about the substance behind it.
Comment by Aldyth Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 7:52 am
“The governor has finally accepted reality…”
Don’t we need a governor who can create some reality instead of accepting the defeat handed to him by the legislature? Their entire strategy is based upon a win in November. Quinn’s defeat will be our continuing defeat. So, why didn’t they bite the bullet and just do the job they needed to do, that they are required by the constitution to do, instead of gambling our future at the polls?
Illinois … serving gyros, rotten, fatty, hyperbolic gyros.
Comment by Vole Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 7:56 am
Quinn:”I think that’s what taxpayers are looking for.”
Festus: “No, not really Governor. What taxpayers are looking for is someone who is ready to LEAD BY EXAMPLE. For some reason, that seems to be lost on you.”
Unless the average Illinois voter has been really mislead, our state is on the precipice of an economic cliff and Pat Quinn and the other Pied Pipers from Springfield are more than willing to continue lead the column of lemmings following them over the edge of the cliff and to dash themselves to death on the rocks below.
Quinn has just sent out “one more tip” on how he plans to continue to govern by pushing raises to his favorite Merry Band of Men. Stroger must have been giving Pat Quinn tips on “how to win friends and negatively influence voters”. It is almost as insane as Local 150 and Mr. Sweeney going out on strike for increased demands during an ongoing severe recession/depression. Watch for union “rank & file” to finally go against union leadership demands and refuse to support Democrat candidates in November. Instead, you will see them vote Republican in the privacy of the voting booth for the first time in ages.It is all about “jobs”, jobs”, and “jobs”.Many of these union guys haven’t worked for over a year or more. Their union leadership “fail to get it” because they are so far removed from the financial pain that the rank & file are experiencing.There is “a storm brewing” and it will be blowing in on November 2, 2010.
Comment by Festus Hagen Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 8:02 am
One more reason why another term for Quinn is simply not an option. As unappealing as Brady might be (plenty), it is at least theoretically possible that he might learn something when he has to deal with the realities of the office. Quinn has clearly established that he will not.
Comment by Excessively Rabid Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 8:22 am
Well, as a mid-level staffer taking furlough days, these raises seal the deal for me. I’ll vote for “Idiot #2″ - Brady
I’d also like to know why the Budget Director is getting paid at all? Directing the budget down the crapper is hardly worthy of compensation!
Kids running agencies, early-release cons killing people, bloated overpaid agency management …. that’s why he’s “Idiot #1″.
Comment by anon Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 8:44 am
Here’s one for y’all… rate Quinn, Brady, Gianoulous & Kirk on the incompetence scale. My vote is:
1 Quinn
2 Kirk
3 Brady
4 Giannoulias
Comment by anon Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 8:49 am
1) Nobody’s criticizing him for cutting the governor’s staff budget by 25%. They’re criticizing him for not cutting it 30%. Who knows…add up all of the raises and it might amount to a entire person’s salary in another department.
2)
==
But as a state senator, Brady is equally responsible for that loss of control.
==
Nonsense. You can’t seriously compare a GOVERNOR to a single non-leadership legislator that’s in the minority party.
Everybody knows that state business has to navigate around the wills of Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton. They have near super-majorities. If they can get their caucus in line, then they can pass whatever they want.
Comment by John Galt Wednesday, Jul 7, 10 @ 9:26 am