Pritzker staffers’ salaries at least $30K higher than those in largest states
The governor’s practice of supplementing state pay with personal wealth is rare nationally
New Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s move to boost administrators’ pay through his own personal wealth has pushed Illinois’ top staffers salaries above those in the nation’s largest states by at least $30,000.
An analysis by the Center for Illinois Politics finds that Chief of Staff Anne Caprara’s salary of $298,000—$150,000 of which comes from Pritzker’s personal funds—is far higher than those in New York, California, Texas and Florida, as well as states surrounding Illinois.
It’s a move raising eyebrows and prompting conversations both within and outside the state, as observers are grappling with the ethics—and ramifications—of the billionaire governor’s decision to supplement state salaries with his own wealth. The Center for Illinois Politics’ dive into nationwide data seeks to put the move into context.
“There's already a question in Illinois whether you have to be megarich to win the governorship, now I think there is going to be an additional question about whether you have to be megarich to attract top people in the government,” Mike Lawrence, a former Springfield statehouse bureau chief and later, an aide to Republican Gov. Jim Edgar.
Caprara’s earnings, plus the $278,000 annual salaries of Pritzker’s four deputy governors—Christian Mitchell, Jesse Ruiz, Dan Hynes and Sol Flores—and his senior adviser, Nikki Budzinski, best the top administrators salaries in Texas, the next highest-paid state. There, four of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s administrators make between $265,000 and $265,720 a year, according to documents obtained by the Center via a Freedom of Information Act request.
In California, the Center’s analysis finds, a senior assistant to former Gov. Jerry Brown pulled in $213,019 in 2017. An executive secretary, meanwhile, made $196,230.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s secretary made $197,526 last year, while his chief of staff and chief counsel made $194,244. And in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott’s chief of staff made $166,000 last year, records show.
Meanwhile, the surrounding states of Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri all pay top administrators $140,000 or less annually, records show.
Within Illinois, key Pritzker aides are bringing home $100,000 more in some cases than their predecessors in GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration.
What’s more, they’re being paid twice as much as aides in similar roles serving the last Democrat in the governor’s office, Pat Quinn.
In both cases, the pay increases were offset by Pritzker and Rauner each forgoing the $177,412 governor’s salary.
Mitchell, a former state representative who resigned his seat to take the deputy governor’s post, sponsored legislation during his final days in office that would allow Pritzker to exceed the current cap and pay agency heads 15 percent more in state funds without violating the state statute.
“We cannot fix Illinois, fix the things wrong with the state, if we don’t have the top talent to do so,” the Associated Press reported Mitchell said at a House committee hearing, pointing out that recruits could make far more both in the private sector and in other states.
Still, Lawrence outlined concerns about the level of pay which “could make it more difficult for key advisors to tell the governor things he might not want to hear.”
Rauner, a wealthy private equity investor, also weathered criticism during the early days of his administration for his decision to pay top staffers an average of 36 percent more than their predecessors in the Quinn administration.
But Pritzker’s move to utilize personal funds to, as his administration says, “attract and maintain top talent” takes things a step further.
Only a handful of public officials with vast personal wealth have supplemented taxpayer-funded salaries with their own funds.
In 2010, the New York Post reported that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg “formed a company called Manhattan West at the offices of his longtime accountant, Martin Geller, so he could personally pay the three aides for performing nongovernmental chores on their own time.” Those aides were paid between $60,000 and $100,000 by Bloomberg in addition to their government salaries, which ranged from $113,429 to $117,818, according to the Post.
The move was cleared by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.
Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, making him the wealthiest politician in office, according to Forbes magazine. President Donald Trump’s net worth is just shy of Pritzker’s at $3.1 billion.
The supplemental funds are paid to Pritzker administrators through a limited liability corporation recently formed by the governor, called East Jackson Street LLC.
Illinois has no statute that prohibits the use of personal funds to supplement state employees' salaries. The Illinois Election Code does stipulate that campaign funds may be used “to defray the customary and reasonable expenses of an officeholder in connection with the performance of governmental and public service functions.” (10 ILCS 5/9-8.10(c)). Similar laws are on the books in Florida, Indiana, Missouri and California.
University of Illinois Chicago Political Science Professor Christopher Z. Mooney outlined “worrying concerns” stemming from “Pritzker’s wealth causing his perspective to diverge from that of typical Illinoisans.”
“He may think that $150,000 is just too low to get good people,” Mooney said, “but what does that say about the rest of us who earn an average of about $63,000 per year? And what does that say about those who worked for previous governors in these roles—could better people have been hired? What about those in the current administration who didn’t get these huge step increases? And what expectations are set up for the next governor? These are all worrying.”
Note: The Center for Illinois Politics is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing clear, fact-based information to encourage more Illinoisans to be active in politics. This article has been reviewed by a bipartisan panel of former lawmakers, political analysts and academics to ensure its nonpartisan nature.
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