Taxpayer Watchdog Group Urges Immediate Up-or-Down Senate Vote on Budget Transparency Bill
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), along with State Rep. Mike Tryon and three other citizen organizations, today called for Senate President Emil Jones to schedule budget transparency legislation for an immediate up-or-down vote. At a Capitol news conference, AFP unveiled a 17-group coalition letter supporting Rep. Tryon’s bill (HB 4765) to create an online, searchable database of state spending that would essentially allow citizens to “Google” their tax dollars. HB 4765 was passed unanimously by the House on Tuesday and must now be approved by the Senate.
“We believe that government should have nothing to hide from the taxpayers that fund it, and this push for state spending transparency is driven by that belief,” said AFP Illinois Director Joe Calomino. “This bill is about our government restoring trust to taxpayers.”
House Bill 4765 would establish the Illinois Accountability Portal, a website with comprehensive information about state spending, state employees and their pay rates, state contracts, state tax credits, and all revocations and suspensions of state occupation and use tax certificates. Rep. Tryon’s bill is inspired by a successful bipartisan bill on the federal level sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn and Sen. Barack Obama that created the federal spending website, USAspending.gov
AFP Vice President of Public Affairs Ed Frank was quick to point out that Sen. Jones, a strong supporter of Sen. Obama, should follow the presidential candidate’s lead by immediately bringing House Bill 4765 up for a vote, and making the Illinois Accountability Portal a reality. Previous legislative efforts to bring accountability and transparency to the state budget process have died in the Rules Committee.
The 17 groups signing the coalition letter collectively represent millions of citizens. Signatories include Illinois groups such as the Illinois Policy Institute and the Illinois Family Institute, but also national organizations such as Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and American Conservative Union.
“The unanimous House vote shows that the bill is strongly bipartisan and deserves timely consideration in the Senate,” the signatories wrote. “In a state that is renowned for political corruption, insider deals, and pay-to-play politics, we can see no reason not to provide the public with as much information as possible regarding the inner workings of state government. … Illinois’s own Senator Barack Obama, realized the value in such legislation as he was one of the chief sponsors of the historic Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.”
Americans for Prosperity is a state and national leader on transparency issues. AFP was instrumental in ensuring passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, and played a key role in passing transparency legislation in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. In Illinois, AFP is working toward transparency at all levels of government, including a push for county government spending websites.
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