Less than a week after the General Assembly approved the state’s first budget in more than two years over the objection of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, he named a new chief of staff who has been president of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The institute opposed the tax increase included in the budget that became law with an override of Rauner vetoes.

Kristina Rasmussen, 34, of Springfield, began the job immediately, Rauner’s office announced Monday. She has been president and chief operating officer of the institute, and replaces Richard Goldberg, 33, of Chicago, as chief of staff.

“Kristina has worked tirelessly to defend taxpayers over the course of her career,” Rauner said in a statement. “Her record of achievement speaks for itself, both nationally and right here in the Prairie State.”

Rauner said Goldberg, a Navy Reserve intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan in 2011 and former deputy chief of staff to then-U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., is “transitioning back to foreign policy, national security and consulting” after more than three years with Rauner, starting in the 2014 campaign.

Rauner said he respects Goldberg’s decision to leave, and “Diana and I will always value his counsel and we wish him the best of luck in his next adventure.” The governor called Goldberg “one of the most talented policy, political and communications advisers I’ve ever met.”

Goldberg has been paid $180,000 annually, according to comptroller's records. A governor's office spokeswoman said Rasmussen's salary will be $170,000. According to a tax return for the Illinois Policy Institute covering 2014, Rasmussen was paid $157,778 in "reportable compensation from related organizations" that year, in addition to $30,509 that was the "estimated amount of other compensation from the organization and related organizations." An institute spokeswoman did not elaborate, saying the forms "speak for themselves."

Rasmussen joined the policy institute in Springfield in 2009 after working 3 1/2 years for the National Taxpayers Union in Washington, D.C., where she was director of government affairs. She is a Minnesota native with a political science degree from what was then Randolph-Macon Woman’s College – now Randolph College – in Lynchburg, Virginia, and has a master's from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

No tax hikes

Chris Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, said that while he doesn’t know much about Rasmussen, her appointment indicates that the governor is “associating himself very closely” with the institute. He noted Rauner has been a significant donor to that group. Before he ran for governor, Rauner’s family foundation gave the organization $625,000 between 2009 and 2013.

Mooney called the policy institute “a very conservative group that is well-funded” and has been a “strong supporter” of Rauner, “though they did really hammer him pretty hard when he said he was going to sign a tax increase.”

Rauner opposed the permanent increase approved by the General Assembly last week because he said it came without reforms he wanted. Republican lawmakers had said Rauner would approve of what they called earlier a “Capitol Compromise” that raised taxes to the same levels – but only for four years and only if tied to a four-year property tax freeze. The income tax was raised last week to 4.95 percent from 3.75 percent for individuals, and to 7 percent from 5.25 percent for businesses. The increases are supposed to generate about $5 billion annually.

Rasmussen had written on the policy institute’s website on June 29 that the governor backing a plan including more taxes “ignores the preferences of his coalition in return for no political advantage.”

A poll showed, she wrote, that the governor’s base “prefers Illinois Policy’s vision of a state budget that balances through spending reforms without tax hikes.”

Mooney said the policy institute’s no-tax plan was considered by most lawmakers in both parties, as well as commentators and advocates, as something that “wasn’t a realistic approach.

“The only way to do it is to just drastically reduce services, which is a policy choice,” Mooney said. “I mean, we could be Mississippi or West Virginia if we wanted to, but in the past, we have chosen not to do that as Illinoisans.”

'Self-reinforcing failure'

The policy institute also has an “independent project” called the Illinois News Network that covers issues including state government and provides that coverage – some from a studio at the institute’s Springfield headquarters – to media outlets across the state. Mooney said the existence of that operation helps show that the policy institute has a lot of resources. Network officials say they make independent editorial decisions.

In February, Rasmussen published an opinion piece in The State Journal-Register titled “Political extremism stopping Illinois from progress.” She argued that Illinois was in a “vicious cycle of self-reinforcing failure” due to “extremism.”

“Extremism is the highest property taxes in the nation, and telling you that’s OK,” she wrote. “Extremism is failing schools and underserved students, and telling you that’s OK. Extremism is self-serving bureaucracy that gets little done, and telling you that’s OK. Extremism is government unions that flourish with your money, and telling you that’s OK. ... Extremism is the end of the American Dream in Illinois, and telling you that’s OK. ...”

Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman said in a statement that the organization would miss Rasmussen “immensely,” but said people there are “thrilled that Kristina is bringing her passion for sound policy, her love of liberty, and her vision of an Illinois that is prosperous and free to the service of a governor who shares all those qualities. ... The 32 percent tax hike without reform that the General Assembly just passed illustrates the imperative to win the fight to put the people of Illinois first. We must reform the system that has allowed House Speaker Mike Madigan and his political machine to create such hardship for working families. With the governor’s decision to add Kristina to his team, Illinois taxpayers and families have an effective and proven champion on their side.”

The budget passed did include money-saving changes to some future pension benefits, and more than a dozen Republicans in the legislature joined in voting either for the budget or the override actions. Lawmakers also passed some legislation sought by the governor, including procurement reform, but Rauner has dismissed the actions as far from what is needed.

Steve Brown, spokesman for Madigan, D-Chicago, didn’t comment on Rasmussen’s appointment.

Rasmussen is married and has three children. Her husband, Henrik, is son of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former secretary general of NATO who earlier was prime minister of Denmark. Among the elder Rasmussen’s visits to Springfield was one in April 2010, when he witnessed his son’s naturalization as an American citizen in a ceremony at the Old State Capitol.

— Contact Bernard Schoenburg: bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg.