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| Pantagraph EditorialWednesday, October 24, 2007 12:09 AM CDT |
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Now is the time for Illinois to approve ethics reforms
The opportunity to override the governor's budgetary veto isn't the only thing Senate President Emil Jones is blocking. He also is denying senators a vote on an ethics bill, House Bill 1, that is co-sponsored by a majority of the Senate, including all senators representing the Pantagraph area. That's right. A vast, bipartisan majority of the Senate not only support the bill aimed at ending "pay-to-play" politics, 46 of its 59 members have signed on as co-sponsors. But that's not good enough for Jones. About five months ago, a spokesman for Jones said the Senate leader was working on an alternative because he didn't think House Bill 1 was strong enough. We are still waiting for his "alternative." The House passed the bill in April on a 116-0 vote. Two members had excused absences that day. But there is no excuse for the absence of Jones on this issue. The bill would prohibit anyone with more than $25,000 in state contracts from contributing to the campaigns of an executive branch constitutional officer responsible for awarding the contracts. Anyone bidding on a state contract worth more than $10,000 would have to reveal previous political contributions. The intent is to end the practice or perception of political contributions influencing the awarding of state contracts. As noted recently by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, $25 million in contracts could be up for grabs if a capital budget is approved. That makes it more timely than ever for this legislation to be approved. At the same time Jones is dilly-dallying with consideration of this ethics legislation, a federal investigation is continuing into questionable campaign contributions and state contracts. We shouldn't wait for another governor or Illinois public official to be indicted before updating reform laws. Quinn has called on Gov. Rod Blagojevich to urge "his ally" Jones to bring HB 1 to a vote and, if that doesn't work, to sign an executive order preventing big contracts from being awarded to campaign contributors. An executive order isn't enough. Illinois needs a state law - the state law encompassed in the bill approved without dissent in the House and with overwhelming support in the Senate just waiting for a chance to vote. The Senate should pass HB 1 along with House Bill 3, another reform measure also buried in the Rules Committee, which was approved by the House 117-0 in February. Illinoisans are tired of the shenanigans in Springfield. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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