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The [Friday] Papers"While criticizing state spending and state worker salaries as too high, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is paying top members of his administration significantly more than their predecessors in Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn's administration, a review by The Associated Press has found. "An AP review of state payroll records found nine of ten top administrative posts paying more under Rauner, who took office earlier this month. On an annual basis, those Rauner staffers will make more than the equivalent Quinn staffers by nearly 36 percent, or roughly $380,000." This is good. Let's keep going. Among those receiving more is Rauner's deputy governor, Olin "Trey" Childress III, a former chief operating officer for the state of Georgia, who is making $198,000 a year, a 24 percent increase over Quinn's deputy governor's $150,000 salary. As I tweeted a few days ago:
But this is my favorite part: In response to AP questions, Rauner's spokesman Lance Trover wrote Thursday in a one-sentence e-mail that the governor's overall payroll is "currently less than under Gov. Pat Quinn." But he did not provide specifics, and he did not answer specific questions about the salaries of individual staff members. Why is that my favorite part? Because of this: Trover, a former Kirk communications director and senior adviser to Rauner's campaign, is making $132,000 annually. His predecessor earned $86,004. I guess you gotta pay more to get communications guys to say less. Click through to see similar staffers getting way more than their Quinn counterparts. * Rauner is totally using a private equity blueprint so far - bust unions, reduce worker pay, strip the entity of its assets, and reward the temporary management team. In this case, though, the entity is a state. You can't shut it down or sell it off. And the entity's customers are citizens. They can't simply get the services they need elsewhere. * Will the Democratic majorities in the General Assembly go along with any of Rauner's plans, including "right to work" zones, an expanded sales tax and slashing social service budgets even further than Pat Quinn did? Or will the Dems simply override the governor and manage the state themselves? That is the key question of the hour. The Danny Davis Show Just a few days after filing 47,000 signatures to run for mayor of Chicago, businessman/philanthropist Dr. Willie Wilson held a strategy meeting at the Chicago Baptist Institute International where Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-7th) and others pledged their full support for his candidacy. I'd say a lot of shuck and jivin' is going on. Trust Fund Kid Then Fran publishes the press release of projects we are led to believe would never have happened if not for Rahm, even though most of them started before he took office and/or are rudimentary upgrades that any and every mayor would and has overseen. And then there's this: "Emanuel closed by arguing that it is 'not an accident' that, since he embarked on his stepped-up plan to modernize roads, mass transit and airports, Chicago is the No. 1 city for families to return to live and the No. 1 city for corporation relocations and direct foreign investment." Right. "Honey, did you hear? Rahm modernized the roads. Let's move the family back to Chicago." And this: "If we go back to the past of not investing in our infrastructure, Chicago will go back in time." When in the past did the city not invest in infrastructure? I mean, it's never enough, but really. During Daley's 22 years? * Of course, Rahm is doing a bit of political positioning there, which Spielman is happy to oblige. See, he's moving Chicago forward. Electing one of his challengers would be going back - to that mythical time when nobody around here bothered to build a bridge or pave a road. If you want to go back to the dark Daley years, aided and abetted by none other than Rahm Emanuel, vote for Fioretti or Garcia. If you want to move forward at light speed beyond the dark Daley years, aided and abetted by none other than Rahm Emanuel, vote Rahm Emanuel. * I seem to recall the media, including Spielman, going along quite easily with the Infrastructure Trust. Once again, those who raised questions about it were right. Like always. And no one is held accountable and proper credit isn't given. To wit: - The [Infrastructure Trust] Papers (Or, Smells Like Teen Parking Meters). - Infrastructure Critics Have A New Villain, And His Name Is Joe "Proco" Moreno. - 11 More Things About Rahm's Bank. For more of the day-to-day coverage of the time when Rahm's new bank was the only thing that would save Chicago from ruin and had to be passed immediately to prevent ever-looming Detroitness from befalling our city overnight, put "Infrastructure Trust" into our search bar and laugh your head off. * Of course, the Trust hasn't failed the way some of us thought it would - it's been such a flop you can't even call it a boondoggle, having totally failed to deliver public assets to private investors at huge profits as promised. So far it's a bunch of nothing. And to think Bill Clinton came in to tout it. And all that national coverage . . . and without any follow-up. Where are the "what went wrong" stories? - Beachwood Photo Booth A Victory On Government Spying The Week In Chicago Rock - BeachBook * Beyoncé Course At UIC Not A Fluff Class. - TweetWood
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- The Beachwood Tip Line: Infrastructure you can trust. Posted on January 30, 2015 |
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