SPRINGFIELD — A $30,000-per-month consultant brought in to help Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner craft a budget will remain on the job even though her original contract called for her to be finished by May 31.
In a brief announcement, Rauner's office said the contract of chief financial officer Donna Arduin would run until a final budget is signed, or by Aug. 28, whichever is first.
In addition, her new contract cuts her salary in half to $15,000 per month, meaning she will earn an estimated $45,000 this summer.
"She will continue working with the Governor's Office of Management and Budget on enacting a balanced budget," the governor's office said.
The extension is just one more example of the ongoing fallout from the failure of the Republican governor and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly to agree on a budget plan by the Legislature's scheduled May 31 adjournment date.
The two sides are locked in a contentious battle over Rauner's insistence that parts of his business-friendly agenda be put in place before he agrees to any kind of tax increase designed to balance the budget.
Arduin was among a handful of high-profile hires made by Rauner, who took over in January as the first Republican chief executive in a dozen years. Before her Illinois hiring, Arduin helped prepare budgets for Republican governors in New York, California, Florida and Michigan.
Arduin, the president of Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics, is noted for "simplifying property taxes and reducing the size of state governments" — two issues that have kept Rauner and Democrats from reaching a budget agreement.
Rauner previously called Arduin "the smartest state government budget person in America."
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