 Through a combination of litigation and collection efforts, Madigan's office
generated more than $36 for every tax dollar spent in 2012. Since Madigan took
office, total collections have reached more than $9.09 billion.
"My office seeks to maximize our ability to generate revenue to fund critical
state programs and services while maintaining the lowest level of taxpayer
funding since 1997. In 2012, we successfully collected over a billion dollars on
behalf of the state," Madigan said.
In 2012, Madigan's office collected $1,118,090,309.69 billion on behalf of
the state. The attorney general's office generated nearly $571 million of this
amount through collections litigation, including funds for damage to state
property, child support, unpaid educational loans, fines and penalties. In
addition, the attorney general's office collected over $273.7 million through
tobacco litigation and over $273.4 million in estate tax revenues.
Every year, pursuant to state law, the attorney general reports these
collection totals to the General Assembly by Feb. 1.
Madigan's office operated in 2012 with an appropriation from the state's
general revenue fund of $30,705,700 -- the lowest level of taxpayer dollars
funding the office since 1997. Nonetheless, the attorney general's office
generated $36.41 for every state general revenue tax dollar the office received
in 2012, an increase over the nearly $30 generated for every tax dollar spent in
2011.
The $1.1 billion generated in 2012 does not include tens of millions of
dollars that Madigan's office successfully recovered through mediation and
litigation, which then is distributed directly to Illinois residents, businesses
and organizations, often as restitution.
For instance, the Consumer Fraud Bureau recovered and saved more than $799
million on behalf of defrauded Illinois residents and businesses in 2012. That
sum includes relief for Illinois borrowers from the $25 billion national
foreclosure settlement that Madigan secured in conjunction with her state
counterparts, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development. The settlement is the second-largest ever obtained
through joint action of state attorneys general.
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 Madigan's office also reached several groundbreaking settlements with the
pharmaceutical industry in 2012. Among the most notable is a joint settlement
that Madigan's office, state attorneys general throughout the country and the
federal government entered into with GlaxoSmithKline for $3 billion, the largest
health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. The settlement, which included
nearly $25 million for Illinois' Medicaid program, resolved allegations that the
company engaged in illegal schemes to market and price its drugs.
Additionally, Madigan's office joined two national settlements with Abbott
Laboratories, totaling $1.6 billion, over allegations of illegal and deceptive
marketing of its Depakote drug. Through those settlements, Illinois received $20
million.
Madigan's office also has secured more than $75 million in unpaid gasoline
sales taxes in a joint initiative begun with the state's revenue department in
late 2010. This ongoing investigation is aimed at cracking down on gas station
owners who have evaded paying sales taxes by falsely reporting gasoline sales
figures, causing the loss of millions of dollars in state tax revenue.
[Text from file received from the office
of
Illinois Attorney General Lisa
Madigan]
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