Donna Arduin out as Budget Director

Donna Arduin, the controversial Director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been let go by Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska). Dunleavy’s Chief of Staff, Ben Stevens, just held a conference call with reporters to announce the decision. Stevens said it was a decision of the Governor and his leadership team. He also stated that Laura Cramer is now acting budget director. They hope to announce a permanent replacement sometime this week.

Stevens said Arduin will transition from Director of OMB to an advisor to OMB if she so desires. If they can agree on a contract she will be paid at a reduced rate from her current salary of $195,000 a year. He did not indicate how much she would be paid in an advisory role. Stevens said the decision did not have anything to do with the recall effort against Dunleavy, but that it was about being able to craft a budget for the administration.

Since Ben Stevens took over as chief of staff there has been talk of a shake up in personnel in the Governor’s Office. Arduin was rumored to be first on the chopping block. Her radical approach to the budget drew the ire of many Alaskans. Her often times smug and condescending answers to legislators in committee meetings did not win her many friends in the Legislature.

It is unclear if she will stay on as an advisor or will head off to another state. Arduin has worked in Florida under Governor Jeb Bush, California under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as in Illinois and Michigan. It appears her time in Alaska may be coming to an end.

Subscribe
Notify of

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
C Murphy
4 years ago

Donna’s already blazed a trail of sorrow, disasters and ruination throughout Alaska; now she can go find another state to dismantle. I’m sure she’s looking forward to it, especially since she’s such a pro with stealing from the poor to fill the coffers of the wealthy (including her own outrageously exorbitant wages).

Marc
4 years ago

Way too little, way too late.

Having spent ~$1M packing his house with his kind of people, the gubernator now thinks he can move the pieces around on the Board and, while the gullible rubes that elected him will opine that the Koch-sucker should not give an inch, the rest of the rubes will be mesmerized by his prestidigitation, and therefore might as well be Dumb levies.

Sorry Mikey, but you opened the box, and we are going to eat you for lunch 🙂

Lynn Willis
4 years ago

Savor the irony if she becomes a state funded contractor and continues to look down her nose at others who “aren’t really necessary” on the state payroll.

G Foode
4 years ago

This is what it feels like to have Team Dunleavy disembowel our lovely ALaska.
https://youtu.be/QnnkHgyqARQ

Dan
4 years ago

Donna Arduin and those like her are just symptoms of a corrupt and greedy grifter culture from the lower 48 versed and competent in sending silver-tongued, french-cuffed, con-men to our great state to ruin our economy, kill our jobs, silence our experts, steal our timber, deplete our oil reserves, spoil our fishing and hunting grounds, and leave a barren spoiled land for our children. As we have seen, 48,000 smart, moral, Sourdough Alaskans stood tall and said, “Not to our State, Not on our watch.” Sadly, we are forced to waste time, energy, and money to recall a Governor who… Read more »