ICPR CALLS ON SENATE TO PASS “PAY-TO-PLAY” LEGISLATION

For the second time this year, the Illinois House has given overwhelming support to legislation aimed at limiting the influence of big campaign contributors, and attention again shifts to the Senate, which has bottled up legislation to discourage “pay-to-play” contracts in state government.

On Thursday, the House voted 99 to 0 in favor of Senate Bill 1305, which would prohibit business owners with more than $25,000 in state contracts from making campaign contributions to officeholders awarding the contracts. Identical language is contained in House Bill 1, which the House sent to the Senate in April.

“Even though 45 of the 59 Senate members are co-sponsors of HB 1, the Senate leadership has blocked consideration of this important reform measure,” said Cynthia Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR). “The House now has given the Senate yet another opportunity to show taxpayers they are willing to end pay-to-play practices in state government.”

In letters to Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, and to the 45 Senate sponsors of HB 1, Canary said HB 1, which is being held in the Senate Rules Committee, should be moved to the floor for a final Senate vote. “Can anyone seriously argue that the state gets better services because contractors are allowed to make unlimited donations to the statewide official who oversees their contracts,” Canary asked.

“The public is well aware that large campaign contributors often land large state contracts,” Canary said. “It happens so often that many taxpayers are convinced that state government is for sale. The pay-to-play defenders have damaged faith in the fairness of government and discouraged businesses without political connections from even bidding on state contracts.”

SB 1305 is sponsored by State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook. The chief co-sponsors are John Fritchey, D-Chicago; Sidney Mathias, R-Buffalo Grove; Paul Froehlich, R-Schaumburg; and Elizabeth Coulson, R-Glenview. Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-Evanston, is the chief sponsor in the Senate.

SB 1305 now returns to the Senate for consideration of the House amendment, which includes the pay-to-play provision.

Other portions of the bill, as amended, include the following: a requirement that state employee retirement systems and public employee pension funds follow the provisions of the Illinois Procurement Code, as state agencies do now; a prohibition on consultants and lobbyists from representing investment managers unless they meet certain criteria; a prohibition on paying lobbyists of pension boards through a contingency fee arrangement; limitations on the use of no-bid emergency purchases; a requirement that the Executive Inspector General inform the Executive Ethics Commission of active investigations, and expansion of the Illinois Whistleblower Act to give protections against retaliation to employees of local governments, school districts, community colleges and state universities.