Open Illinois.org

For a look into Illinois state spending, check out the new transparency website, http://accountability.illinois.gov.

This site provides a good, first step towards more transparency in Illinois, but it still needs some work. For instance, it would be more helpful and user-friendly if the state would simply list all contracts and vendors instead of asking the public to search for them by name or contract number. The general public isn’t going to know names of vendors or contracts – this isn’t helpful and a lot can be missed searching this way.

Legislators’ salaries are not listed - yet. Apparently these are coming, so we’ll keep an eye out.

Retiree data isn’t available either. Pension information should be listed with the salary information so people see the total pay and benefits. This is important. They should also list everyone getting benefits — those off the payroll but retired and still receiving a check (hence “all expenditures” should be listed). I can’t find this either. If this information is there, it’s not easily found, which is a problem.

Illinois has made a good step, and we congratulate them, but it’s far from complete. We look forward to seeing a more comprehensive site soon.