LANSING – John Nixon, the director of the State Budget Office and the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, is returning to Utah and as a result David Behen, has been named DTMB Director.

Snyder simultaneously announced the other replacement for Nixon, who held posts historically filled by two different people. The governor’s deputy chief of staff, John Roberts, will become budget director. Behen , will retain his CIO title. Deputy Legal Counsel Beth Clement will succeed Roberts in the deputy chief of staff role.

The new appointments by the governor take effect March 1. Only Behen’s is subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, but the Senate has not objected to a single Snyder appointee in his more than three years in office so that is not going to be an issue.

“I would have liked John to stay in the position from a professional point of view, but I appreciate all the family issues and I don’t view it as my role to interfere in making family decisions,” Snyder said when asked if he urged Nixon to stay.

After winning election in 2010, Snyder embarked on a national search for a budget director and scored rave reviews with his hire of Nixon away from the Utah state government. This time, there was no need for a national search, Snyder said.

“The great part is we already have outstanding people in the administration,” he said of naming Behen, Roberts and Clement to their new roles. “It’s a win for all of us in terms of having good people take positions although we are going to miss John. John’s done great work for us.”

Indeed, Snyder and Nixon were completely in sync. Staff would shake their heads during budget discussions at how the two CPAs would click in discussing the budget.

Snyder’s first budget, with its many, deep cuts, was his most controversial, and Nixon excelled at avoiding legislative landmines in making the case for the administration’s position.

Nixon’s salary, at $250,000, presented a target for Democrats and they often referenced it, especially when it came to complaints from state classified employees about meager salary increases and increasing benefit costs. Snyder always said having Nixon hold both the budget office and DTMB director positions at $250,000 was an overall savings for the state.

With Behen retaining the CIO post as well, the reshuffling will actually mean additional savings. The combined salaries of Behen and Roberts is $314,350 ($165,000 for Behen and $149,350 for Roberts) compared to the combined $406,000 in salary paid to Nixon and Behen (he made $156,000 prior to the promotion).

Nixon said University of Utah officials approached him in November about the position, and he took considerable time to think it over. He let them know he had to complete his work helping Snyder assemble the 2014-15 fiscal year budget recommendation, but said he realized high-level jobs in Utah do not come open that often.

“It took me quite a while to make the decision just because I really love my job here,” he said, saying he did not make the final decision until January. “There’s something to be said for grandpas to be watching grandsons play football on Friday night and my mom, grandma, wants to be able to see grandkids sing in the choir, we think it’s a great opportunity to return to Utah.”

Nixon said he would have preferred to stay in his role in Michigan for about two more years and even joked with the University of Utah president about holding the job for a couple years and it is a more difficult decision to leave Michigan for Utah than it was to leave Utah for Michigan. Nixon obtained his master’s degree from the University of Utah.

“It was one of those things I had to jump on,” Nixon said of the new job.

And Snyder said he made no attempt to lobby Nixon to stay, saying it is not his role to interfere in family decisions. And he said he always tells his staff to prioritize their families.

Roberts, 32, will be a second-generation top budget/finance official in his family. His father, Doug Roberts Sr., was treasurer for most of the administration of former Governor John Engler and also served as deputy director of what was then the Department of Management and Budget and later was director of the Senate Fiscal Agency.

Roberts junior moved to Snyder’s deputy chief of staff job after serving as policy director for House Republicans and spent time in the administration of former President George W. Bush, including time in the federal Office of Management and Budget. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics and master’s of business administration from Michigan State University.

Snyder said Roberts has a “strong background in both business and finance.” He said Roberts has been participating in the budget meetings since November so he is fully up to speed.

Roberts said he and his father did discuss the job and while his father did not offer specific advice, “he more than encouraged me to do it.”

Roberts is not a CPA, but Nixon said most state budget directors are not CPAs.

“It’s a nice designation to have, but what’s more important is your ability to analyze the budgets, understand what the policy priorities are for the governor,” he said.

Behen has been with Snyder’s administration since the beginning and has known Snyder for many years from their shared work in the technology field. He is a former CIO and deputy administrator of Washtenaw County. He also cofounded a software company and served as vice president and CIO of its parent corporation. He earned his bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in public administration from Eastern Michigan University.

With the jobs split, Roberts will take the helm on budgetary matters while Behen will take the lead on oversight of state employees, state property and the state’s information technology infrastructure.

Behen had a role in the now-disbanded “skunk works” group that examined the idea of creating a value charter school that could operate at a cost of $5,000 per pupil. Once the group’s existence became public, and as a firestorm quickly developed, officials said Behen was simply trying to pull together a group of experts on how to infuse technology into the classroom.

Snyder said he decided to split up the two roles because there were qualified people available. And Mr. Nixon was uniquely qualified to fill both jobs, he said.

“I thought it was the best answer given the outstanding people we had,” he said of splitting up the job.

During his time in Michigan, Nixon became famous for referring to how Utah state government operated. And he sometimes would say Utah when he meant to say Michigan. So Snyder got laughs when he said, “The good part is now you can go back to Utah and slip up and say Michigan.”

A week ago, while answering questions from members of the Appropriations committees during the budget presentation, Nixon got into a tense exchange with Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) over the issue of whether the Snyder administration has increased or cut funding to K-12 schools.

Nixon told Dillon even his fifth-grader at home could look at the numbers and see funding went up.

Thursday, Nixon said he might have gone too far, but felt like he had to set the record straight after sensing Dillon was pushing the administration (he also clarified his daughter is in fourth grade, but taking fifth-grade math classes).

“I felt like he was coming after us,” he said. “The fifth grade comment probably was a little bit out of school and in hindsight it may not have been the best thing to throw out there again because that’s not my character, but I’m proud of what we’ve done in education, I’m proud of what we’ve done budgetarily.?

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