I too am a consultant. I am well paid for my time but I have a family. In my case, I am retired from the U.S. Military so I have health benifits and get retirment pay. Not enought to live on, but it pays for my house.
There is no question that I would stay with the consulting, however he has to think about his family also.
This is a hard decision I know. On the one hand he is making great money and no benifits on the other hand good benifits and less money.
What it has to come down to is where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years. Would you rather spend that time as a consultant or as a public servant. You have to concider your job happiness also. If it were me I would look for some type of insurance to protect my family and see if the money paid for the insurance still leaves me more then the state job. If you can get the insurance and some type of retirement benifits and still be better off then the state job then I would go with the consulting. But you also have to realize consulting may not be a paycheck every week. At some point there may be periods of no pay. That will not happen with the state job unless your elected represenatatives are late on the state budget. It happens more often then most people think.