SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Ralph Martire Appointed to "Budget and Innovation" Transition Committee

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability is pleased to announce that Ralph Martire has been appointed by Governor-elect JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton to serve on the Budget and Innovation Committee of their gubernatorial transition.

The committee’s 17 policy experts, chaired by former state Comptroller Dan Hynes, will guide the incoming gubernatorial administration. It is the first to be formed by Governor-elect Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton.

“It is an honor to be appointed to Governor-elect Pritzker’s Budget and Innovation Committee” said Martire. “I look forward to working with his incoming administration and my fellow Committee members to identify real, systemic solutions to Illinois’ long-standing fiscal problems.”

The full list of Budget and Innovation Committee members include:

Former Comptroller Dan Hynes is a senior advisor on the Transition Committee and chairs the Budget and Innovation Committee. Hynes currently serves as a senior executive at UBS Asset Management in Chicago, after a distinguished 12-year career in public service as the Comptroller for the State of Illinois. Hynes was elected Comptroller in 1998 as the youngest state constitutional officer since World War II. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2006 by wide margins.

State Representative Greg Harris is the Assistant Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, serving the 13th House District and chairing the Appropriations-Human Services Committee and Violence Prevention Task Force. Harris is the first openly LGBTQ person in the Illinois legislative leadership.

State Senator Toi Hutchinson serves the 40th Senate District and chairs the Senate Revenue Committee. Hutchinson is the former Olympia Fields Village Clerk and has worked in governmental relations and legislative affairs. Hutchinson served as the Chief Professional Officer of the Southwest Suburban United Way and is a 2012 Edgar Fellow.

State Senator Andy Manar serves the 48th Senate District after years of service as city councilman and mayor of Bunker Hill and chair of the Macoupin County Board. Manar led the charge to overhaul our state’s outdated school funding formula, sponsoring bipartisan legislation to make sure every child has access to a quality education regardless of their ZIP code. He also reformed the state’s lead economic development agency to make it more accountable.

Mayor Tom McNamara represents the City of Rockford, elected in 2017 after serving as alderman of the city’s 3rd Ward. McNamara is an insurance agent with Eckburg Insurance Group and previously worked as Career Development Specialist for Goodwill of Northern Illinois.

Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe represents the City of Decatur, becoming the city’s first female mayor in 2015. Moore Wolfe previously served on the Decatur City Council for six years and as Director of Community and Government Relations for Decatur Memorial Hospital, a regional manager of the Governor’s Opportunity Returns program and President of the Decatur Chamber of Commerce.

Treasurer Kurt Summers currently serves the City of Chicago and manages city’s $8 billion investment portfolio. He previously served as Chief of Staff to the Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and as Trustee for the $9 billion Cook County Pension Fund. Summers most recently was a Senior Vice President at Grosvenor Capital Management where he was a leader of the Emerging and Diverse Manager business, which invested over $2 billion with minority- and women-owned firms.

Jessica Basham is the Chief of Staff to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. She previously served a revenue analyst for the state’s appropriations staff before becoming director of the research group.

Carole L. Brown is the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Chicago. Brown served on the State of Illinois Budget for Results Commission since 2011, chaired the Chicago Transit Authority Board and was a member of Mayor Emanuel’s first term Transition Team. She was previously the managing director at Barclays and was with Siebert Brandford Shank & Co LLC and Mesirow Financial. Brown serves on the boards of Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Metropolitan Planning Council and oneFund Chicago.

Pat Devaney is the President of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois. Devaney first started his career with the Champaign Fire Department in 1995 and he served as lieutenant since 2006. He is a member of AFFI Local 1260 and served as the treasurer, vice president and president.

Ralph Martire is the Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Martire also serves as president of the River Forest District 90 School Board and on the West Cook Division Governing Board of the Illinois Association of School Boards. He previously chaired the State Revenue Committee on the Budget Advisory Board of Governor Blagojevich’s transition team and served as the Deputy Issues Director on Dawn Clark Netsch’s gubernatorial campaign and Issues Director for David Wilhelm’s U.S. Senate run.

Dan Montgomery is the President of 103,000-member Illinois Federation of Teachers, a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and a vice president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. Montgomery has worked on behalf of public education and the rights of working men and women for more than two decades. He taught English for 18 years at Niles North High School in Skokie and also taught in the City Colleges of Chicago and at Northwestern University. A proud union activist, he has been an IFT member since his first day of teaching in 1993.

Laurence Msall is the President of the Civic Federation. Msall previously served as a Senior Advisor for Economic Development for Governor Ryan, the Assistant to the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, and vice president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Christine Radogno is the former Republican Leader in the Illinois State Senate who left office in 2017 following two decades of service. Radogno was the first woman to lead a legislative caucus in Springfield. She previously served a village trustee in LaGrange and ran as her party’s nominee for state treasurer in 2006.

Kristin Richards is the Chief of Staff to Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton. Richards previously served as Policy and Budget Director for the Senate President and as policy adviser and liaison to various state agencies in the Office of the Governor.

Michael Sacks is a senior advisor on the Transition Committee and the Chairman and CEO of GCM Grosvenor. Prior to joining Grosvenor in 1990 he was an Associate with Harris Associates, L.P. He serves as the Vice Chairman of the World Business Chicago Board of Director and is active in various philanthropic and community activities.

Leslie Sgro is currently serving her seventh term as the elected President of the Springfield Park District. During her tenure, she has overseen the transformation of the District by building fully accessible parks and bringing its technology into the 21st century. Sgro served as Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget from 2011-2015, where she oversaw the $26 Billion Illinois Jobs Now program and assisted in passing a transportation capital bill. Bringing together legislative and government partners, Sgro spearheaded an overhaul of the State’s procurement program. She also served as Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources for eight years.