Our View: General Assembly Should Beef Up Conflict of Interest Laws
Executive Director Sarah Brune was quoted in this article
Via – The State Journal Register
“It’s hard to not get depressed while looking at the Center for Public Integrity’s ranking of Illinois.
The state received a D+ overall in public integrity (although, for perspective, the highest-ranked state only received a C and Illinois placed 13th in the country overall). But its findings aren’t stunning to anyone who follows state politics on even a cursory level: As its summary of Illinois’ rankings notes, four of the seven governors elected from 1960 went on to serve time in prison and the state’s budget process is abysmal. It also pointed out that the state’s lack of transparency, access to information and lax ethical standards helped push it down the list.
Somewhat surprising, though, is that Illinois got a middle-of-the-road mark for how it deals with lawmakers voting on legislation on which they may have a conflict of interest. The center grants a top score if a state has a law that ‘requires state legislators to recuse themselves from any action that could confer a financial benefit to them or their immediate family, such as participating or voting in hearings, committees or on the floor’.”
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