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If this were a normal state with reasonable expectations and standards for the ethical conduct of public officials, the first reaction to the news of state Rep. Luis Arroyo’s arrest might have been:
What do you mean the state legislator was acting as a lobbyist on the side? How could that be legal?
Unfortunately, in Illinois, it IS legal for an elected official to be a paid lobbyist, as long as they aren’t lobbying the same branch of government they were elected to represent.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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It’s not only Illinois. Dick Durbin’s wife is a paid lobbyist and he doesn’t even bother to recuse himself from votes benefiting her clients. Just because something seems irrational doesn’t mean it isn’t OK in Illinois. In some states the Speaker of the House wouldn’t even be allowed to broker property tax reductions. Can you imagine that?
Tom Berry
Has Durbin done anything positive for this state?
He regularly hates on and slanders Trump on behalf of the state’s voters. Isn’t that enough?