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 On Feb. 6, former Legislative Inspector General Julie Porter testified that her
office was muzzled by a panel of state lawmakers it was tasked with overseeing.
“Although I completed dozens of investigations without incident, in some
significant matters, when I did find wrongdoing and sought to publish it, state
legislators charged with serving on the Legislative Ethics Commission blocked
me,” she testified at a hearing of the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying
Reform.
For the past year, a massive federal corruption probe has exposed public
corruption in the Illinois General Assembly, leading to indictments against two
state senators and a representative.
Two bodies – the Legislative Ethics Commission, or LEC, and the Office of the
Legislative Inspector General, or LIG – are charged with holding members of the
Illinois General Assembly accountable for ethics violations. But the structure
of the commission and the lack of independence given to the inspector general
leave the process opaque. That makes it look like lawmakers protect their own.
In addition to refusing to publish a summary report in which she had found
wrongdoing by a lawmaker, Porter said she had requested the attorney general
file a formal complaint before the LEC on a different matter. However, Porter
found the commission had blocked the attorney general’s complaint after she had
left office. She also claimed the LEC refused to publish the summary report
Porter prepared on the subject that was sent to the attorney general.
Porter decried the fact that these findings remain in the dark.
“But my report and the Attorney General’s complaint should not be secret,”
Porter said. “They remain so only because the Legislative Ethics Commission
squashed them so that the public could not see what the supposedly independent
Inspector General determined to be wrongdoing by a sitting legislator.”
Porter’s testimony illustrates the frustration that comes with the task of
investigating the legislature under the current structure. She said had she
known then what she knows now, she never would have taken the job because it is
a waste of time under the current statute.
But the LIG need not be handcuffed.
Fixing a broken office
The current structure of the ethics commission leaves the appointment of
commissioners entirely in the hands of the legislative branch, and all of the
current members of the commission are members of the General Assembly.
The LIG could provide more of an outside check on the commission, but the office
is hindered by its lack of independence. Under the current process, the
lawmakers on the commission can largely grant or deny permission to the LIG to
open investigations, to issue subpoenas and to publish summary reports – even if
the LIG finds a complaint is founded.
House Bill 4558 would transform the legislative inspector general into a truly
independent watchdog.
The bill, introduced by state Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, would give
the Legislative Inspector General more independence from the Legislative Ethics
Commission when investigating complaints against the legislature. It would
empower the inspector general to open investigations in response to a complaint
and issue subpoenas without approval from the lawmakers on the Legislative
Ethics Commission.
More importantly, it would allow the legislative inspector general’s office to
make summary reports public if its investigations find wrongdoing.
Allegations of sexual harassment are already exempt from needing commission
approval to open an investigation. In the wake of the sexual harassment scandal
in Springfield, the General Assembly determined the LIG needed independence to
show a strong response. But the same level of oversight should apply to all
allegations of wrongdoing under the Capitol dome.
The Illinois Executive Inspector General, responsible for investigating the
executive branch, can already initiate investigations and issue subpoenas
without approval of the Executive Ethics Commission. The LIG should be entrusted
with comparable authority, especially when the commission she reports to is made
up of eight members of the General Assembly she is charged with investigating.
When allegations against members of the General Assembly are made, it can be
difficult for the public to know whether there is any basis. And because the
Inspector General has to gain the approval of lawmakers before pursuing
investigations or publishing findings, the public might think members will
protect their own. Given that the Legislative Ethics Commission needs five of
eight members to agree to take any official action, four members on a party-line
vote can block the LIG.
By granting the Legislative Inspector General more authority to act
independently, members of the General Assembly can relieve some of these
concerns.
The Inspector General needs the authority to open investigations in response to
complaints, to issue subpoenas in the course of those investigations and to
publish summary reports in the case of a finding of wrongdoing. The public will
gain more faith that corruption will be exposed if and where it exists, rather
than buried by politicians watching out for their buddies.
Illinois’ jobs market performance severely lagged the national average during
2019, growing at nearly half the rate of the rest of the nation, according to
new data released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security in
conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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While Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration touted
2019 as a success for jobs, Illinois’ jobs market continued to
struggle during the governor’s first year in office.
During the year, preliminary December 2019 data
shows that Illinois:
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Added 45,000 nonfarm payroll jobs for an
increase of 0.7%, the slowest growth rate in the first year of
any Illinois governor’s elected term since Rod Blagojevich in
2007
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Added jobs at the 32nd fastest rate in the
nation (38th when not counting the public sector)
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Underperformed the national median in nearly
every sector, actually shed jobs in five of 11 sectors and
failed to grow the state’s labor force
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Ended the year with an unemployment rate higher
than most neighboring states
One of the growth sectors was government
employment, adding 13,400 jobs in 2019 to earn Illinois its highest
ranking at No. 5 in the nation. But recent history makes clear that
increased government spending and payrolls are not the solution to
Illinois’ weak economy.
Large increases in state spending during the past 20 years have
failed to improve Illinois’ economic performance compared with other
states. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Illinois has increased
per capita total state spending by 46% after adjusting for
inflation. That’s 35% faster than the national average. Meanwhile,
real per capita personal income in Illinois has only grown by 18%, a
rate 21% slower than the national average.
Instead, the state needs to stop fostering government jobs and
pursue policies that promote a healthy environment for private
sector jobs to grow.
Jobs growth sluggish in 2019
Illinois’ sluggish economy added jobs at the 32nd-worst rate in the
nation. Making matters worse, when you remove the public sector
gains, Illinois’ performance falls even farther, ranking 38th for
private sector jobs growth during the year. Overall, 2019 showed
lackluster performance in nearly every industry.
By the end of 2019, eight of the 11 sectors of
Illinois’ economy had lagged the national median in terms of jobs
growth, and five out of the state’s 11 sectors had actually
experienced job losses during the year. The strongest performance
compared with other states came from the government sector, which in
Illinois grew at the fifth-fastest rate in the nation.
Robust growth in the public sector is likely part of the reason
growth in the private sector has been less pronounced, as government
contracts have been shown to reduce other employment opportunities
in Illinois.
The state’s losses were felt by the following sectors: Mining, down
600 jobs (-7.7%); Information shed 700 jobs (-0.8%); Construction
saw payrolls depleted by 1,200 (-0.5%); Trade, Transportation &
Utilities lost 4,600 jobs (-0.4%); and Manufacturing shed 1,900 jobs
(-0.3%).
Meanwhile, of the industries that gained jobs, the strongest
performance came in the Leisure and Hospitality sector which added
16,900 jobs (+2.7%). Following up that performance was the
Educational and Health sector growing payrolls by 17,100 (+1.8%);
Government expanded by 13,400 positions (+1.6%); Other Services
added 3,800 jobs (+1.5%); Financial Activities grew payrolls by
1,800 (+0.4%); while Professional and Business Services added 1,000
jobs (+0.1%) during the year.
Unemployment rate dropping due to workforce dropout, not Illinoisans
finding jobs
While Illinois’ 2019 performance lagged most other states, the
state’s total jobs growth was tied with neighboring Kentucky and
Missouri – all up 0.7% for the year – and ahead of all other
neighbors. Unfortunately, the relatively strong jobs growth compared
with neighboring states hasn’t translated into lower unemployment
rates than neighboring states or the national average of 3.5%.
While the decline in unemployment rates across the
nation during the economic recovery has been due to job creation,
Illinois has not had the same experience. Illinois’ decline in
unemployment rate since 2007 has been due entirely to more
Illinoisans exiting the labor force, not job creation. In fact,
relative to 2007, Illinois has actually shed nearly 120,000 jobs
(-1.9%) and the unemployment rate has only fallen because even more
Illinoisans – 243,000 (-3.6%) – have left the labor force
altogether.
If Illinois’ labor force were the same size as it was in 2007, the
state would have an unemployment rate of 7.2%. That would be higher
than the December 2007 rate of 5.4% and nearly double the current
unemployment rate.
Labor force
A key component for job creation and a thriving state economy is a
growing labor force. Labor force growth assures businesses looking
to invest in a state that there will be a growing pool of workers
from which they can pull talent and a larger consumer base for their
products. It also bolsters the housing market, which is closely
linked to the health of the labor market. Unfortunately, Illinois
also performed poorly when it came to growing the state’s labor
force. In 2019, the state’s labor force was essentially stagnant,
adding fewer than 10,000 (+0.1%) potential employees to the
workforce, among the worst performance in the nation.
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