Keeping Up With The Madigans

***EDITOR’S NOTE: Sam Adams Alliance interns have recently taken some immersion classes in blogging, and will be testing their skills here in the next few weeks. This post comes from our Judgepedia.org intern, Mark Szczuka.***

Of the many beneficiaries of roughly $9 billion in Illinois taxes is the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), which is set to receive approximately $18 million for its various projects intended for the public. While every state has some kind of artistic initiative, what’s curious in Illinois is that the chairman of the IAC is Shirley Madigan, the wife of House Speaker Michael Madigan, and mother of Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

The extent of power of this family is extraordinary. Michael Madigan has presided as House Speaker for more than thirty years. Shirley Madigan has presided as chairman of the IAC for more than twenty years. And Lisa has presided as Attorney General for over six years. Furthermore, Shirley Madigan sits on the board of directors for Loyola University Chicago, the alma matter of both Michael and Lisa.

Also, Michael Madigan is the principal attorney at his firm, Madigan & Getzendanner, whose clients are comprised mostly of construction, development, and housing corporations. His firm has nearly 100 big name clients, yet only six attorneys, one of which is often preoccupied with presiding over the Illinois House of Representatives.    

In 2006, Speaker Madigan authorized payment of $8 million to Loyola for various construction projects; a move that angered taxpayers whose public schools were simultaneously going broke.

Any speculation regarding self-dealing here is not surprising. In keeping up with the Madigans, I direct your attention to two websites. The first is Muckety, a database tracking the interconnections of the power players. The second is a list of all the clients represented by Michael Madigan’s half-dozen attorneys at Madigan & Getzendanner. Together, these two resources make connecting the dots much easier—and interesting.

Updates from the states

A couple of few interesting updates…

* Our friends at Americans for Tax Reform posted a strong admonishment to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and state Senate President Bob Burns on the ATR blog this morning. Burns recently discharged Senator Thayer Verschoor (R-Gilbert) and Senate Majority Whip Pamela Gorman (R-Anthem) from their leadership positions after the senators voted against the Governor’s ill-advised legislation to increase AZ’s sales tax. Americans for Tax Reform set up an action page citizens can visit to speak out against the tax hike.

* Bob Weeks over at Voice for Liberty in Wichita points out that Sedgwick County, Kansas has placed its check register online. Inquiring minds can sort data by function, category, fund, or vendor.

**MORE UPDATES!!!**

* The Ocean State Policy Research Institute is tracking RI stimulus spending through their newest website, RIStimulus.org.

* Duval County celebrated its “A-” rating from SunshineReview.org, which was the highest grade given in the state of Florida, and the only county that had complete information about lobbyists on its Web site. Only one Florida county, Suwannee County, should be embarrassed by not having a web presence.

AZ transparency helps fight tax increase

The Goldwater Institute, uses information gleaned from transparency to help fight higher taxes. Who wants to give more money to a government agencies that have a history of waste and abuse?

SJ-R covers Open IL Week

The Springfield, IL State-Journal Register printed an op-ed from Paul Miller, the Sam Adams Alliance communications director, on Open IL Week. Open IL Week was actually last week, but any recognition of efforts to hold elected officials accountable on transparency is timely, especially at the end of the state legislative session.

In March, the government transparency Web site Sunshine Review completed transparency evaluations for all 3,140 counties in the country. Each county Web site was evaluated against a 10-point transparency checklist that consists of information Sunshine Review and its sponsor, the Sam Adams Alliance, believe should be easily accessible by the public: budgets, taxes, contracts and lobbying efforts are a few examples. Unfortunately, the level of transparency found in most Illinois counties confirmed what most citizens already know. Open and honest government in Illinois is the exception, not the rule.
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This week is Open Illinois Week. A project of the Illinois Policy Institute and Sunshine Review, Open Illinois was created to empower everyday citizens to demand transparency from their county government and at the same time give people the tools to hold their county officials accountable.

Concerned citizens throughout Illinois are being urged to get involved in the political process and contact their county commissioner (board members, council, executives) and ask them to sign the Open Illinois transparency pledge and commit to meeting the criteria of the Sunshine Review transparency checklist.

After contacting your county official, report back to the public what he or she said and did. Sunshine Review is a wiki-based Web site, which means everyday citizens can create a log in and go to the Open Illinois Counties Project and make certain their elected officials are accountable to their constituents.

Check out the Open Illinois Week project on Sunshine Review and do your part to ensure our government is responsive and accountable to its citizens.

Colorado: Transparency goes down in flames

Colorado SB 57, sponsored by Republican state senator Ted Harvey, would have required schools to post their spending reports online in a searchable database. Revolutionary? No. A good idea? You bet.

Unfortunately, Democrats didn’t think so, and it went down in the House Education committee in a party-line vote, 8-5. According to the Independence Institute, education associations contributed the following amounts to the committee members:

*Name of Rep – Total Amount from Education Lobby Organizations – Vote on SB 57
*Randy Baumgardner – $0 – Yes
*Debbie Benefield – $6,975 – No
*Tom Massey – $500 – Yes
*Michael Merrifield – $5,250 – No
*Karen Middleton – $3,125 – No
*Carole Murray – $0 – Yes
*Cherylin Peniston – $4750 – No
*Kevin Priola – $0 – Yes
*Christine Scanlan – $5,000 – No
*Sue Schafer – $5,750 – No
*Ken Summers – $0 – Yes
*Nancy Todd – $4,650 – No
*Judy Solano – $5,750- No

So do you think those contributions made a difference?

This is an embarrassment to Colorado. Shame, shame, shame on the reps that didn’t vote for open government during SUNSHINE WEEK of all times. I am guessing the voters in your districts may reward you with a similar “no” vote in your next election.

You can read all of the twists and turns at Sunshine Review.

More on the education lobby’s strategy against SB 57 at the COST blog.

OFRG works for greater transparency

The Oklahoman printed an op-ed by Brian Downs from Oklahomans for Responsible Government that advocated greater transparency at both the state and local government. They even cited SunshineReview.org, which sets a standard level of transparency for government websites.

Right now, Oklahoma posts much of its spending online through the Office of State Finance. But according to the Web site SunshineReview.org, Oklahoma lacks two of the six criteria for evaluating spending Web sites: contracts and line-item expenditures. Missouri is the only state that meets all six criteria. Oklahoma lawmakers should push to make our state a leader in transparency.

On the local level, Oklahoma falls behind most states in even the lowest forms of transparency. Of the state’s 77 counties, 48 have no Web site at all. Of those that do, only Payne and Rogers counties have their full budgets posted online. Clearly more needs to be done to make local governments more transparent.

In difficult economic times, transparency is an easy answer to make sure taxpayers are getting enough bang for their buck. Groups like Oklahomans for Responsible Government, Americans for Prosperity-OK, and Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs are doing their part to remind government officials of that priority.

Related: Check out Oklahoma’s Open Books website.

Senator Coburn reveals earmarks

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is a known crusader against wasteful, secret, and pork-barrel spending and earmarks. He did the nation a favor this week when he posted an Omnibus Highlights and Numbers section on his website.

Interesting facts about this legislation:

Total Spending in the Omnibus:
According to CBO, the omnibus will cost $410 billion, $32 billion (8.4%) more than FY 2008 spending. The legislation is 1,128 pages long. Each page is equal to $363 million in spending.

Excluding emergency appropriations, the bill is:
• $19 billion (4.9%) more than President Bush’s request
• $19 billion (4.9% more than the cost of extending the continuing resolution
• $32 billion (8.4%) more than last year

Earmarks:
Total omnibus earmarks: 8,570
Total cost: $7.7 billion

The three previously enacted FY 2009 spending bills included a total of 2,321 earmarks, costing $6.6 billion.

Total FY 2009 earmarks: 10,891
Total FY 2009 earmark spending: $14.3 billion

Good grief.

H/T: Oklahoma Center for Public Affairs- compiled list of earmarks

Also… as a plug for our friends at American Majority, Senator Coburn is the keynote speaker at a special dinner on March 27th. I hope you will join me in supporting American Majority’s mission of recruiting activists that believe in fiscal restraint. Sen. Coburn could use some back-up!

Carbondale: Restoring my faith in government

Although national figures such as Barack Obama, John McCain, Tom Coburn, and Bobby Jindal have been forceful advocates for government transparency, the message doesn’t always seem to filter down to the municipal level. This morning, I began my workday by reading and an article in the Alva Review-Courier by Helen Barrett titled “What are We Hiding?“. The article laments the lack of openness in the Alva, Oklahoma city council, including possible violations of the Oklahoma Open Meetings law.

The very purpose of instituting the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act clearly states in the opening paragraph that “It is the public policy of the State of Oklahoma to encourage and facilitate an informed citizenry’s understanding of the governmental processes and governmental problems.”

If even the boards appointed to help direct different departments of government are prohibited from knowing information without going through a big ordeal, it makes one wonder, “what are we hiding?”

Exactly.

But then… cities were somewhat redeemed in my mind when I saw a press release from Mayor Brad Cole, who is an outstanding up-and-coming public servant of Carbondale, Illinois. Mayor Cole commissioned a redesign of the city website recently, and proactively sought to include every single item on the Sunshine Review Transparency Checklist.

Congratulations, Mayor Cole and the city of Carbondale, and thanks for restoring this transparency advocate’s faith in local governments. I guess now you aren’t only the “Capitol of Southern Illinois”, but also the current “Transparency Capitol of The Entire State of Illinois”. Now go have a Don Taco to celebrate.

Rhode Island shows spending online

Almost one year ago, I was present for a meeting between the Ocean State Policy Research Institute and State Treasurer Frank T. Caprio. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how Caprio could best fulfill his campaign promise of increasing transparency for Rhode Islanders. Today, the plans discussed in that meeting have come to fruition in the Treasury Online Checkbook, a tool that allows the public to view Treasury’s Accounts Payable expenditures.

“We believe firmly that transparency, and the accountability it inspires, are not just good for government, but good for Rhode Island,” said Caprio.

Exactly. I also was pleased to see that SR earned a spot in the site’s FAQ page for detailing states with spending online. Rock on!

Colorado transparency is Common Sense

Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge, an organization working to preserve and expand initiative and referendum rights, addressed Colorado transparency in his Common Sense column today. I have copied it, with permission, below.

Opaque Transparency

Colorado’s state treasurer, Cary Kennedy, is on the hot seat. When running for office, he promised to make the state’s spending more transparent. He has not followed through.

In a different age, such dilatoriness might have been overlooked. Today, the very medium that makes it easy to report what is happening with taxpayers’ money, the Internet, also makes it easy to pressure delinquent officials.

There are websites. The one calling Kennedy to account is a blog called Colorado Spending Transparency. Or COST.

COST recalls that during his 2006 campaign for Colorado State Treasurer, Kennedy observed that when you buy groceries, the receipt shows what you bought. Kennedy, too, he said, would “show you where your money goes.”

Colorado does post its annual budget online. But the COST blog wants a detailed, searchable database, as fifteen other states have provided.

Representative Don Marostica, who also championed transparency in his 2006 campaign, introduced a bill to require such online itemizing. The bill never made it out of committee. Marostica had planned to re-introduce the bill until Governor Ritter stated in a recent speech that he would work with Treasurer Kennedy and others to put the state’s checkbook online.

COST says doing this will only reveal what the state paid, not necessarily what it paid FOR. COST wants the whole story. And will keep pressing until it gets it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

You can check out information on the Colorado state budget on Sunshine Review.

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