Quinn should be livid about Illinois incidents /Editorial
The boast rotates at the top of his campaign website: Gov. Pat Quinn “restored integrity to Illinois government.” Aides say that after taking office in 2009 he vanquished a climate of corruption, the legacy of his criminal predecessors.
Did he? Today the public’s trust in Quinn is strained as never before. Federal and Cook County prosecutors are exploring a botched anti-violence program on which Quinn spent $54.5 million. The bipartisan Legislative Audit Commission has voted 10-1 to seek subpoena powers to investigate how that money was doled out. Separately, Chicago attorney Michael Shakman alleges in federal court that Quinn’s Department of Transportation broke anti-patronage rules to put political cronies in state jobs.
At best, these still unfolding issues smack of serious mismanagement. They suggest that Quinn, eager to make permanent the 67-percent personal income rate tax increase he had described as “temporary,” has a maddeningly casual attitude about spending Other People’s Money.
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