 The ethics reform legislation,
House Bill 824, was approved with unanimous support in both the
Illinois Senate and House and was touted by "good-government"
organizations. The original bill aimed to put an end to pay-to-pay
contracts, prohibiting businesses that have more than $50,000 in
state contracts from contributing to declared political candidates
for statewide office.
The legislation also required businesses with state contracts or
pending bids to register with the State Board of Elections, which
was charged with creating a searchable public Internet database
linking the businesses' names to disclosures of all their
contributions to political committees.
Though the governor may have presented practical ways to crack
down on pay-to-play politics in Illinois, lawmakers are critical of
his approach. Bomke said that rather than working with the General
Assembly, Gov. Blagojevich once again used his amendatory veto
powers to rewrite the ethics bill without legislative oversight or
input.
Bomke explained that because House Bill 824 represented a
long-negotiated agreement between legislators, the governor's
drastic changes could potentially block this milestone for reform in
government.
The General Assembly has the option of overriding the governor's
changes, accepting them or doing nothing and letting the bill die --
meaning no pay-to-play reform.
[Text from file sent on behalf of
Sen.
Larry Bomke by Illinois
Senate Republican staff] |
