Open Illinois.org

Meant to employ 439,000 people in Illinois, Springfield’s $31 billion capital budget lacks transparency and leaves the public with no way to know how the money is being spent. For example, Raul Montes Jr. claims funds are being unfairly allocated to Cicero (Martin Sandoval’s 12^th district) instead of his town, Little Village. More transparency in the funds allocation process would help Montes and others support or deny that claim – yet identifying this information is a tedious endeavor, muddling the ability for Montes and the public to find the facts. According to Northwestern’s Medill Reports:

The capital projects document available online is organized by state agency, not by community or zip code. A separate Chicago and Cook County-specific document on the same Web site offers only highlights of major projects.

Organizing the budget document by agency makes it difficult to determine how many capital dollars are coming into Sandoval’s district, or any other. To determine which capital projects were taking place in a given community, residents have to inspect each line of the 87-page document to identify construction sites.

Transparency does not end with simply opening information to the public. In the spirit of true transparency, it also requires government to make the information clear, detailed, itemized and in an easy-to-understand, searchable format. Only then can the public understand spending decisions and use the information in a useful, productive way.