In the News
Daily Herald, May 16, 2009
How you could find out more about state spending
SPRINGFIELD - A record of how much money Illinois spends and who gets it could soon be available online if Gov. Pat Quinn approves.
The state Senate voted Friday to establish the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal, a Web site listing all state spending, state employees and their salaries and all state contracts. The House approved the plan in April.
"For the average everyday citizen who wants to get a sense of what is going on with state government, once this portal is up and operating, they will get more than a bird's-eye view," said state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat and sponsor of the plan. If Quinn signs the proposal into law, the Web site would go live by Jan. 1, 2011.
The portal is designed to be useful and searchable, Garrett said. Spending will be broken down by agency, category, recipient and representative district. The portal would exclude the names of law enforcement officers. State contracts could be sorted by contractor, agency, value and the goods or services provided.
"Taxpayers ought to have the right to be able to get that information without jumping through hoops and requesting Freedom of Information notices, and right now they don't have that. The doors have been shut in state government and we're now opening them up," Garrett said.
Improving transparency in government is one of the six ethics fixes recommended by the Illinois Reform Commission, led by former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins. However, state Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican, proposed the transparency portal even before former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was removed from office.
"I have been working, along with many of my colleagues, on many different types of reforms that actually the Collins commission hasn't even brought up, this being one of them," Garrett said. "This particular provision is probably going to do more for transparency in state government than anything else."
A similar plan was approved by the House last year, but then-Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat, never allowed a vote in the Senate.