GlassHouse

From time-to-time I will be highlighting individuals who are working towards greater transparency and ethics reform in Illinois state government. Illinois State Representative Michael Tryon is one of those individuals. Rep. Tryon has worked hard over several years to secure passage of ethics reform legislation that created the Illinois Transparency & Accountability Portal. Unbelievably, even against the backdrop of the Blagojevich fiasco, this legislation faced some challenges. Rep. Tryon stayed tough and his effort to provide Illinois residents with information about how their tax dollars are spent was signed into law last year. I’ve asked Rep. Tryon to share a bit about his legislation…
 
Getting to Transparency – a Portal to Accountability
by State Representative Michael Tryon
 
It’s hard to believe that just one year ago, then Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office. His impeachment stemmed from federal criminal corruption charges, which shed light on the pay-to-play allegations that plagued Blagojevich since the moment he took office.
 
Following his removal from office, public trust in government and elected officials was at an all-time low, and Illinois was placed in the punch line of late night comedians across the nation.
 
So where do we go from here? What steps can we take to restore the public’s trust in state government? The first thing that had to be addressed was transparency, specifically transparency in government spending. If we’re ever going to eliminate wasteful and unethical government spending, we need to shed sunshine on the state’s checkbook and see where taxpayer money is actually going.
 
That’s why last year I joined with the Illinois chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to craft sweeping transparency legislation which would put state spending on the web. AFP is a grassroots taxpayer watchdog group leading the charge for transparency throughout the nation. Together, we authored House Bill 35 which created the Illinois Accountability and Transparency Portal, a searchable website that creates a central location for the public to access state expenditures, tax credits, state contracts and state employee salaries.
 
The governor signed HB 35 into law in August, and the Illinois Transparency & Accountability Portal web site was launched soon thereafter at accountability.illinois.gov.
 
Going further, however, we must take similar steps to address the campaign finance laws in Illinois.
 
The campaign finance bill approved by the legislature last October was nothing more than a sham. It protects the interests and the power of party bosses by failing to place campaign contribution caps on party bosses or legislative leaders during the general election. Instead, the legislation places caps on individuals, corporations, unions, and political action committees.
 
I voted against the legislation and questioned Speaker Madigan on various components of the bill like the transparency of the disclosure requirements. I could not in good conscience support a bill that does not provide the optimum amount of transparency or reduce the influence party bosses can have on the political process and the legislature.
 
As Illinois continues to increase its reputation as one of the most politically corrupt states in the nation, we have the opportunity to learn from the past and build on our successes to make Illinois national leader in transparency.