Open Illinois.org

The Illinois Policy Institute has developed several policy resources for you to use both to get general information on transparency and to learn how government bodies have achieved transparency elsewhere. Below is a listing of our policy resources, on transparency websites, TIFs and more. If you have any questions about the findings in our papers, please contact Kate Campaigne.

Policy Brief: Time to Throw a TIF- Invisible, Unaccountable Taxes You’ve Never Heard Of. Bob and Rita Smith* are generous people.  Every year, they give about $2,000 to wealthy, politically connected real estate developers doing business in their Wilson Yard neighborhood. Bob and Rita live frugally, work hard to save for retirement, and struggle to make ends meet each month—and yet, they keep on giving to the wealthy developers, year after year. Why?  Bob and Rita don’t even realize they are doing this.

Policy Brief: Illinois Government Needs An X-Ray Machine. Imagine you’re about to have heart surgery. Would you want your doctor operating on your heart in the dark? Or without looking at your x-ray first?  Well, that’s what Illinois government is doing: operating without an x-ray and functioning in the dark.  The state budget continues to face a daunting deficit, out-of-control spending, and lacks the tool (transparency) to measure what programs work and what programs do not. The state has little accountability in its decision-making process, and corruption charges and pay-to-play politics have further tainted any trust left in elected officials.

Policy Brief: Working for Transparency in Illinois: Do Illinois citizens deserve to know where their tax dollars go?  Less than ten years ago, a state audit found that many of our public officials didn’t think so.  More than two-thirds of requests for public documents, the study found, were turned away at local offices.  More than a quarter of them were denied altogether. One researcher told a story of a county sheriff who, in response to a request for jail records, “wadded up a copy of the state’s freedom of information law,” declaring, “I don’t have to tell you nothing.”