State Senate Passes Bill to Shed Light on Illinois Finances
“Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal (ITAP)” awaits Governor Quinn’s signature

Action Alert – Click here to contact Governor Quinn

I encourage you to contact Governor Quinn and ask him to sign HB35 into law immediately – thus taking the first step towards regaining the public's trust in state government.

Springfield-- Today, the Illinois Senate approved transparency legislation spearheaded by Americans for Prosperity and State Representative Michael Tryon (R – Crystal Lake ). House Bill 35 will create the “Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal (ITAP)” requiring the Department of Central Management Services to create an on-line searchable website with information regarding state expenditures, tax credits, state employee salaries and state contracts.

For over two years, Americans for Prosperity has been fighting for transparency in state government. We’ve also been working in conjunction with Judicial Watch filing hundreds of FOI requests in an attempt to expose hidden spending in the state’s budget.

At times our work has been fruitful and other times our work to obtain information from the state has been extremely frustrating, as many state agencies and elected officials have refused to adhere to the FOIA laws.

As an unfortunate result of our work, this past July, Americans for Prosperity joined Judicial Watch in filing a lawsuit against the offices of the governor and senate president for violations of the FOIA. That case is still pending here in the Sangamon County courts.

Last year, Americans for Prosperity and our over 20,000 grassroots activist worked with Representative Tryon and a bi-partisan group of Illinois lawmakers from the House of Representatives to introduce and subsequently pass out of the House the “Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal (ITAP)”.

Unfortunately, the bill was killed in the senate in part due to strong labor union opposition and a lack of desire for transparency under the past administration…

This year we once again worked with Representative Tryon filing HB35, this session’s bill number for “Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal (ITAP)”, additional amendments were added making it one of the strongest transparency bills to every be introduced in the Illinois General Assembly.

Illinois storied history of corruption, as well as its history of abuse waste and sometimes-fraudulent use of taxpayer’s dollars is well documented. Previous administrations on both sides of the aisle have been responsible for the mess we find ourselves in today.

Thanks in part, to a new administration, a new senate president, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers and more importantly the loud cries for reform by Illinois voters, Americans for Prosperity is proud to announce the passage of one of the most comprehensive transparency laws in the nation and what I hope is the first of many more reforms to be passed this year in Illinois.