http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-max07.html"SPRINGFIELD -- A clout-heavy consultant who has donated to Gov. Blagojevich and gotten more than $30 million worth of state business since 2003 has gotten a boost from the administration that critics say could yield another taxpayer-funded windfall for the firm.
The governor's budget office has announced it's in the market for qualified consultants to manage an initiative that could annually generate as much as $400 million more in federal health care and social service dollars for state government.
The plan to reel in that new money was devised last year partly by Virginia-based Maximus Inc. at the state's request. Now, the company has been handed a waiver from state contracting rules by Blagojevich's administration so it can bid on the lucrative contract proposal it helped the state develop.
Blagojevich's budget office is defending the waiver granted to Maximus. But critics contend the deal is "tailor-made" to give more state work to the consulting company, which has given Blagojevich's political fund $25,500 and employs a lobbying firm that has chipped in another $80,300 for the governor. Maximus' lobbyist also has the governor's former congressional chief of staff on its payroll."
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