Open Illinois.org

Would you like another reason why transparency in government is a good idea? Read the following article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-bridgeportpark-071024,0,3110301.story?page=1

This deal sounds like a developer’s fairytale: Buy a piece of land for $50,000 and end up selling it to the city for a grand total of 1.2 million dollars (of taxpayers’ money).  There’s more to the story, of course. A developer is friendly with the mayor, who has plans to make a piece of land into a public park. The developer buys the land, and six years later, after various appraisals escalate the land value from $220,000 to 1.6 million dollars, the developer finds himself in a very sweet situation as a result of increasing appraisals and the city departing from its usual method of valuing land at its current zoning.

Dreams can come true in Chicago, especially (and your chances rise exponentially here) if you’re related to or friends with a politician. We need better government at every level in Illinois. Bringing more transparency to how government spends taxpayers’ dollars makes government officials more accountable for their spending decisions. Transparency provides one tool towards achieving better government, and Illinois needs it. Find out how you can make Illinois government more transparent: Contact the Illinois Policy Institute.