Archive for Needs Transparency
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Chicago to FOIA: Drop Dead.
The Beachwood Reporter discusses the City of Chicago’s less than stellar response to FOIA requests from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which recently released its annual lobbying survey. The survey reported counties and public agencies paid lobbyists nearly …
Medicaid Transparency Passes Both Houses
Medicaid Transparency (HB5241) has passed both Houses and now awaits a signature from the Governor. The Institute’s Kristina Rasmussen testified in support of this legislation, explaining how it would provide the following:
- Offer government administrators a valuable tool
…
Raises in Chicago Public Schools or Not?
Check out this revealing (and entertaining) story by Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky about the maze of Chicago Public Schools spending and the difficulties in figuring out exactly where all the tax dollars are going and why.
Joravsky’s piece, “A …
If Companies Won’t Do Business with Illinois, What’s Next?
Shore Galleries Inc. refused to ship bullets to the Illinois Department of Corrections unless the state paid the vendor upfront, according to a report from the Herald Review today. Currently, the state owes the Lincolnwood firm $6,000, and they don’t …
Health Care Bill: Obama’s Lack of Transparency
Although promising the public would have five days to look at every bill online before signing it into law, Obama has signed the health care bill just 36 hours after it passed the House.
Transparency and Teacher Layoffs
The SouthtownStar has been looking into south suburb school district spending over the last week amid growing talks of teacher layoffs and cutting school programs. The paper sent FOIA requests to 18 towns and 25 school districts asking for information …
Sunshine Commission Passes House
Good news from Springfield yesterday: The House passed legislation to create the Illinois Sunshine Commission (HB4836), which would create a commission “to conduct a thorough review of the relevance, efficiency, and effectiveness of each “State executive branch program.”
Rep. …
Government Salaries vs. Private Sector Salaries
USA Today highlights yet another good reason for government spending transparency:
Average federal salaries exceed average private-sector pay in 83% of comparable occupations.
Citizens want transparent government for many reasons, and being able to easily review government salaries – at …
Illinois Accountability Portal
The January 2010 deadline has come and gone, yet we still don’t see legislators’ salary information posted on the state’s Illinois Accountability Portal.
If you’re interested in seeing salary information for all state employees — benefits data included — …
Is This Really Asking Too Much?
Rep. Renee Kosel introduced legislation (HB5483) which would amend the current Open Meetings Act and require “a public body to make proposed minutes of an open meeting available for public inspection within 8 business days after the meeting …
