Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner says his staff deserves to be paid more than his predecessors’.
Rauner defended the pay increases today after the Associated Press reported that his top ten staffers make about $380,000 more than Governor Pat Quinn’s aids.
"Our compensation needs to be at market levels...competitive levels. The people we are bringing into our administration, most are taking significant cuts compared to what they were making on the outside. That’s the critical point. We are assembling talented people who want to be public servants and are taking significant cuts."
Rauner has criticized state spending and public worker salaries while the state is in billions of dollars of debt.
Rauner says overall state spending will still be less than it was under the Quinn Administration, but was silent on the details.