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Elk Grove Village–a Chicago suburb–recently retired its TIF district because, as village Mayor Craig Johnson said, the TIF’s purpose had been accomplished.

The Daily Herald reports Elk Grove will rebate $300,000 yearly in excess revenue from the TIF to area…

Liberty Leader David Jenkins issued FOIA requests and compiled a database of salaries of employees in the Illinois Attorney General’s office.

From Jenkins’s press release:

In an effort to provide transparency and accountability to Illinois state government, a Cicero resident

…

Steve Stanek of the Heartland Institute comes out today with a story about economic planning gone wrong in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates.

Thanks to generous tax increment financing (TIF) from the Village of Hoffman Estates and…

In the aftermath of a new FOIA law passing both houses of the General Assembly–and currently sitting on Governor Quinn’s desk–the Northwest Herald today wrote a lengthy article about how the new law means more work for local…

By May 15, 2009, both houses of the General Assembly passed the Illinois Accountability Portal (HB 35) into law unanimously.

Now it’s up to Governor Quinn to sign the bill–which would make a website listing all state expenditures online–into law.…

The title says it all.

In total, we’ve had 10 candidates for Palatine’s elected offices–the township, highways, school, park and library districts–sign on board with our clear and proactive Transparency Pledge. This is all due to the hard work…

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica has brought the county to another level of transparency with his cookemployees.com site. This site is a central list to get salary information on all employees of the county, as well…

Following up on Nick’s post about TIFs in the Huffington Post, I figured it might be fitting to mention a new article–by yours truly–on the Chicago-based Gaper’s Block blog. In it, I write about the continuing…

It’s Sunshine Week, and newspapers are collectively highlighting the level of transparency–or lack thereof–in states nationwide.

Here’s a brief run-down of Sunshine Week editorials from Illinois newspapers.

Pantagraph: Illinois behind the times in making info available online

[Quinn] not only…

I love reading news stories that attribute pro-transparency quotes to public officials (or even candidates). An article in today’s Daily Herald about Arlington Heights mayoral candidate Phillip Walter definitely fits the bill.

Phillip Walter said if Arlington Heights

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