Perhaps reflecting technology’s increasing importance in government operations, John Nixon will be paid a $250,000 salary. A spokesperson for Nixon told The Detroit News the salary amount was justified because he would be doing a job previously done by two directors.
A year ago former Gov. Jennifer Granholm combined the state’s IT and budget departments into a single agency. Former state CIO Kenneth Theis became the Department of Technology, Management and Budget’s, first director. Theis reportedly was paid $145,000, while former budget director Robert Emerson received $135,000.
Theis stepped down in September to take a private-sector job.
Nixon was recruited from Utah, where he was the state’s budget director. He is expected to shift Michigan toward performance-based budgeting. In Utah, Nixon enacted monthly scorecards and metrics for every state agency.
