It is no secret that Democrats hold a supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly. For years they’ve been wielding their power with abandon and at great expense to Illinoisans’ right to participate in the legislative process. The Democrats in charge have been suppressing the rights of Illinoisans to weigh in on public policy through a number of strategic moves designed to keep the public in the dark and stifle their viewpoints, especially if those viewpoints run counter to those of the supermajority.

The Democratic supermajority broke their own House Rules during the final hours of session when they allowed lawmakers to vote three times on one piece of legislation to raise taxes. The bill passed on the third vote after failing twice before.

However, House Rules only allow for two votes. According to Rule 72, if legislation on concurrence fails to pass the second time, the bill cannot be called again for another vote. Unless, of course you are in the supermajority. By allowing a third vote, Democratic leaders were able to convince several of their own to change their votes. So, in an overnight session, the tax hike measure passed at 4:30 in the morning, on the third try.

State Representative Amy Elik's legislation to improve government transparency and make it easier for taxpayers to find information about proposed property tax increases now awaits the Governor's signature. 

Senate Bill 3567, introduced by Senator Erica Harriss and sponsored in the House by Elik, expands provisions in the Truth in Taxation Act. The legislation requires local governments proposing to raise their tax levy by more than five percent to post a notice announcing the increase in a prominent location on their website homepage. Additionally, the notice must be posted for a minimum of 30 consecutive days. 

In response to the failure of Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino to answer questions amidst the ongoing federal and state investigations into his campaign spending irregularities while a member of the Illinois General Assembly, State Representative Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) announced the filing today of House Joint Resolution 158 aimed at removing Mautino from office, a measure with over 20 co-sponsors.

“Auditor General Mautino is not able to perform his duties with the trust and confidence that Illinoisans deserve,” Rep. Kay said.  “The Auditor General’s Office is a position where transparency is at the very heart of the job itself.  Illinoisans deserve a clean government and Auditor General Mautino, by his refusal to respond to public questions surrounding his ethical conduct, has demonstrated that he is unfit to remain in office.” Read more.

A group of Illinois lawmakers began in February formally requesting that Auditor General Frank Mautino work expeditiously to answer serious questions about campaign expenditures and reporting procedures dating back to his time in the Illinois House of Representatives. Today, more than three months later, lawmakers stressed that Mautino’s foot dragging needs to stop.

“Our first letter to Auditor General Mautino was sent on February 1st. He requested a bit more time to which we willingly agreed. At the end of February, he told us we could expect an answer within weeks. But now we’re in the month of May, and these questions are still festering because he simply won’t address them,” said State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville). “If there’s nothing improper, as he asserts, then why won’t he simply answer the questions so he and we can put this issue behind us?” Read more.

The College of DuPage Board of Trustees will soon be looking at a Clean Slate.

The trio of candidates that campaigned under the name the Clean Slate and received significant support from Vice Chairwoman Kathy Hamilton swept the April 7 election.

Deanne Mazzochi came in the lead with 42,903 votes, according to preliminary reports from the DuPage County Election Commission and the Will and Cook county clerks. Frank Napolitano followed with 34,011 votes. Charles Bernstein was third with 28,352 votes. All candidates will commit to 6-year terms on the board.

The slate won all three seats in DuPage and Will counties and two out of three in Cook County, with incumbents Nancy Svoboda and Kim Savage pushing Bernstein into fifth place. Read more in My Suburban Life.

Last month a group of lawmakers sought to advance a package of legislation aimed squarely at a $750K severance buyout that left local taxpayers reeling. Now revelations by the Chicago Tribune that College of DuPage administrators spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on taxpayer-funded outings at the high-end publicly-owned restaurant on the campus of College of DuPage has raised the ire of those same lawmakers.

Here's what they have to say:

Rep. Steve Andersson (R-Geneva)
“The article today by the Tribune is just another example of the largesse that Dr. Brueder engaged in to the detriment and expense of the taxpayers. The COD Board has failed its citizens in allowing this sort of abuse to occur. It is unfortunate that such an “asleep at the wheel” attitude by the Board has cost so many so much. This will likely cause other districts to lose flexibility due to the actions of the COD board.  However, reform must occur to stop this sort of misconduct from recurring.”

Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield)
“I think once people read these new revelations, there will be a renewed call for an electoral remedy for the college board members who allowed this to happen. There should be resignations, but short of that, voters should have the right to recall these officials.”

Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard)
“This situation clearly extends beyond just an egregious severance package, to the point we need to hold immediate public hearings, and possibly to demand resignations of those involved. We’ve been measured but firm in our call to action thus far, but it is clear we need to move more quickly.”

Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton)
“This is just one more example of the type of malfeasance that has been going on at the College of DuPage for years. It is also an example of exactly why the COD trustees need to comply with the legislative request that the Illinois Auditor General be allowed to come in and do a thorough performance audit.”

Rep. Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove)
“As more details emerge about the impetus of the ousting of the head of the College of DuPage, the taxpayer funded, high-end restaurant on the College of DuPage campus, it only adds to the clear need for this situation to be fully vetted in the eye of public hearings.”

Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville)
"Once again, we have seen irresponsible, reckless spending out of our leadership and elected officials from the Community College of DuPage. This is just another reason why a full compliance audit of C.O.D must be completed by the Illinois Auditor General to create better transparency, reinforce accountability and start to regain the trust of the taxpayers."


Read the Chicago Tribune story in its entirety here:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-college-of-dupage-waterleaf

In an effort to gain a full and comprehensive understanding into the financial activity surrounding the College of DuPage (COD) since 2011, State Representative Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) has amended a House Resolution filed last month to deepen the scope of an investigation by the Illinois Auditor General.

The original resolution, HR55, was filed in response to the COD Trustees’ decision last month to approve a $763,000 contract buyout deal for its current College President Robert Breuder, who will leave is post later this year.

“Those who pay taxes to the College of DuPage were outraged by the reckless decision to provide President Breuder with a $763,000 golden parachute deal on his way out the door,” said Ives. “House Resolution 55 asks the Illinois Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of the College of DuPage for fiscal years 2011-2014, and the amendment I filed this week adds depth to the areas that can be investigated.” Read more.

West suburban lawmakers announced a package of bills on Monday aimed at punishing the College of DuPage for giving President Robert Breuder a lucrative severance package and at preventing other taxing bodies from approving similar buyouts.

The proposed legislation, most of which has not been filed yet, ranges from capping severance packages to cutting state funding for schools agreeing to large buyouts such as one Breuder received.

“It’s distressing to again be forced to look to setting parameters on local government, but the fact of the matter is that the people of our area are demanding action,” state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, said at a news conference in Chicago on Monday. “We can’t sit silently by without bringing solutions to the table.” Read the story in the Chicago Tribune.

More articles on this issue:
State Lawmakers Looking To Thwart Big Severance Deals Like One Given To COD President
Area House Republicans Look to Curb “Golden Parachutes”

Armed with a wide set of accountability measures,
all agree that large payouts must end.

With constituents stinging from the recent severance agreement negotiated by the College of DuPage Board, area House Republican lawmakers stepped up with a range of proposals all aimed at the same goal, preventing these types of “golden parachutes” in the future.

DuPage Republican Jeanne Ives (R, Wheaton), an outspoken critic of the college board, led off the press conference stressing the intensity of her constituents over the matter.  “It’s distressing to again be forced to look to setting parameters on local government, but the fact of the matter is that the people of our area are demanding action,” stated Ives.  ”We can’t sit silently by without bringing solutions to the table.”

After reading a scathing report that outlined waste, inefficiency and corruption within the mass-transit boards in Northeastern Illinois, State Representative Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake), who serves as the Minority Spokesperson for the House Mass Transit Committee, went to work on reforms that would improve transparency and accountability within the service boards that fall under the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). Last week Governor Quinn signed those reforms into law.

According to Tryon, the provisions of SB3056, now known as Public Act 98-1027, will go far in enhancing the transparency of the operations and financial expenditures of the agencies that provide transit services to Chicago and the suburban area. "The provisions of this bill are a result of almost a full year of negotiations with representatives from the RTA, CTA, PACE and METRA,” said Tryon. “All of the provisions were part of legislation I filed earlier this year, so I was pleased to see those reforms worked into the final bill.” Read more.

Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka launched a new mobile application that will put taxpayer and vendor payment information right at their fingertips.

“Illinois Pays gives you quick and easy access to the latest news and announcements from the Comptroller’s Office,” said Topinka.  “It also allows vendors to set up the app to view the most recent payments we have deposited in their bank accounts.”

This new free mobile application is available now at the Apple and Google Play stores.

Rep. Tom Demmer, sponsor of "Rita's Law"

When out-of-staters are asked what comes to mind when they think about Illinois, government corruption is right up there near the top of the list.

Illinoisans would ruefully agree.

And who can blame them?

Illinois’ last two governors, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, ended up in prison on corruption charges, and before them, ex-governors Otto Kerner and Dan Walker did time for their crimes.  Read the rest of the opinion piece in the Morris Daily Herald

House Republicans introduced legislation to eliminate
 lame duck sessions

The 11 months to come should be prime incubating time for a wheeling, dealing, no-holds-barred lame duck legislative session in January 2015.

Consider this: Next January, Illinois will have either a new governor intent on letting income taxes drop as scheduled (and a Democratic legislature intent on not losing the $4 billion a year that will mean) or a re-elected Gov. Pat Quinn, who will almost certainly want to extend the temporary tax increase he shepherded through the 2013 lame duck session.

Those who want to keep the temporary higher rates will be eager to make deals in exchange for votes from House and Senate lame ducks who, having nothing to fear from voters anymore, will find it easier to vote for what will be portrayed as a tax increase. In this situation, “make deals” easily can mean “offer employment to.”  Matt Dietrich has the rest of the story at Reboot Illinois.

Rep. Sandack on the House Floor

The embezzlement and fraud that occurred in Dixon, Illinois is almost impossible to believe.  Over $30 million embezzled over 6 years, by a single government employee all from a town that only had an annual average budget of $8 million.  While most news outlets focused on the accused’s extravagant lifestyle and lavish hobbies, the more concerning story to me was how did this happen and how do we protect taxpayers in the future.

The answer, in one word:  Transparency.


Transparency serves as a sort of disinfectant to graft, corruption and fraud.  The more access the public has to information, the more responsible government will be.

The State of Illinois has moved swiftly to open access to information.  Both watchdog groups and government officials are providing endless streams of data on state contracts, spending and salaries.  I believed that it was necessary for taxpayers to have that same type of data available from them for their own hometown.  That’s why I worked with House Republican Leader Tom Cross to develop a new transparency initiative to provide taxpayers with even greater insight into how their tax dollars are spent.

Reboot Illinois has the rest of the story.

Today, legislation that is part of transparency initiatives introduced earlier this year by Leader Tom Cross and Rep. Ron Sandack passed in the Illinois House of Representatives. House Bill 1555 will expand the current Illinois Transparency Portal (ITAP) to include all taxing bodies not just state organizations.

"Too much spending and too much borrowing are leading to higher property taxes for homeowners and are driving up the cost of doing business in Illinois", according to Sandack. "The taxpayers deserve to know what financial promises are being made in their names – especially if they are on the hook to pay for them."

 

Last week, House Republican Leader Tom Cross and State Representative Ron Sandack unveiled a comprehensive package of bills that aim to make state and local government more accountable to taxpayers.  We covered it here on the blog.

In this video, watch Leader Cross and Representative Sandack walk through their proposal.

Earlier today, State Representatives Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove) and Tom Cross (R-Oswego) unveiled a three-point set of new transparency initiatives today to make state and local government more accountable to taxpayers.

"The goal is to provide every property taxpayer with an annual itemized breakdown of the spending outlays they are billed for to support units of local government; including school districts, municipalities, library and park districts, community colleges and more."

You can read the entire release and details of the package of bills here on TomCross.com.