Faced with more questions about staff pay raises, Governor Pat Quinn made an argument that should sound familiar to the executives at Goldman Sachs.
"You have to have professionals who know what they're doing, and you have to retain those people," Quinn said at a afternoon press conference Tuesday. "In the private sector it may be that they have an opportunity to leave public service because they have a better offer. So we have to make sure that we have professionals doing important assignments."
Compare that with a statement from maligned insurer AIG, which took a large government bailout, about why they pay their executives:
“AIG is committed to compensation practices that allow the company to attract and retain capable and experienced professionals and motivate them to achieve strong business results,” a spokesman for AIG said.
Sound familiar?
