Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has handed out raises — some of more than 20 percent — to his staff while proclaiming a message of "shared sacrifice" and planning spending cuts of $1.4 billion because the state is awash in debt... The Democrat has given 43 salary increases averaging 11.4 percent to 35 staffers in the past 15 months, according to an Associated Press analysis of records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
They include a $24,000-a-year bump for the man promoted to shepherd the state through the fiscal storm. Budget Director David Vaught got a 20 percent raise to bring his pay to $144,000 in October when he moved to his new position from Quinn's staff, where he was a senior adviser
Quinn's solution to the state's $13 billion budget deficit?
Borrow more money and delay bill payments, according to the AP. Illinois owes its public sector unions' pension plans roughly $4 billion and Quinn has proposed to borrow that money, too.
Isn't one-party rule fun?
Say, I've got an idea: let's put an inexperienced political hack from the Chicago machine -- which is already responsible for ruining Illinois -- in charge of everything!
Of course the reality is, they just pass the bill up to the Federal Level when they control Congress and the White House.
ReplyDeleteIt is truly sickening and insane.
Corrupt, inept, incompetent, deceitful, etc., the old Democratic Partisan swindle continues.
Change is just another rip off.
Hm. Far be it from me to take anything the AP says at face value, but the example listed stinks. Vaught went from the position of Senior Advisor to the position of State Budget Director, which the AP calls a salary increase? In the real world, we call that "A different job", normally only taken because it *does* pay more.
ReplyDeleteNow that being said, the Gov seems quite happy to drive his state into the hole at full speed. Future generations will curse his name as they write out their tax checks.