Monday, June 27, 2011

Pay Increases for State Staffers

While Governor Quinn talks about needing additional funds for the recently passed state budget, he fails to mention the salary increases he has given his staff.

Gov. Pat Quinn's budget office spokeswoman will be making nearly 50 percent more money after receiving an additional job title this spring.

Kelly Ann Krapf, a former broadcast reporter, received a salary boost from about $71,000 to more than $105,000.

Krapf, 38, joined the budget office in 2009. Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson said Krapf now holds a dual position of communications director and assistant director of the office.

"In her new role, Kelly formally combines the communications role with the fiscal one to create a seamless position that helps to ensure that the complex issues surrounding the budget are articulated effectively to decision makers and Illinois residents alike," Thompson wrote in an email to the Bloomington Pantagraph.

Last year, an Associated Press analysis revealed that Quinn had given 43 salary increases averaging 11.4 percent to 35 staffers over the previous 15 months. The raises were handed out at the same time Quinn was proclaiming a message of "shared sacrifice" and calling for deep spending cuts because of the state's financial crisis.

The Pantagraph reported that Krapf's new salary is similar to what Quinn was paying former associate budget director Malcolm Weems, who recently left to oversee the Illinois Department of Central Management Services.

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