WAND Anchor Mariaane Manko is leaving the TV news business in her rearview mirror and has decided to make some money instead. 

Manko has taken a job as the spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services and the state’s Department on Aging.

She begins her new gig on Jan. 4, and will be paid $115,000 annually, which we can promise is is a lot more than she made anchoring the news in Decatur.

Manko worked at WICS in Springfield for five years, before WAND.

She said with her contract at WAND coming up, she looked for options, even though she considers the Decatur station a “wonderful organization.”