 Through a combination of litigation and collection efforts, Madigan's
office generated more than $32 for every tax dollar appropriated to
the office in 2013. Since Madigan took office, total collections
have reached over $10 billion.
"My office works to maximize revenue to support critical state
programs and services, and we do this while maintaining the lowest
level of taxpayer funding since 1997," Madigan said. "Since my first
term as attorney general, we've secured over $10 billion in revenue
to fund state operations."
In 2013, Madigan's office collected $992,581,592.32 on behalf of
the state. The attorney general's office generated nearly $374.5
million of this amount through collections, litigation for damage to
state property, child support, unpaid educational loans, fines and
penalties. In addition, the attorney general's office collected
nearly $273.6 million through tobacco litigation and nearly $243.6
million in estate tax revenues.
Additionally, due to a settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co.,
Madigan's office recovered $101 million for the state's pension
systems to cover losses sustained from investments in
mortgage-backed securities that contributed to the economic collapse
in 2008.
Madigan's office operated in 2013 with an appropriation from the
state's general revenue fund of $30,843,200 – the lowest level of
funding from taxpayer dollars that the office has received since
1997. The attorney general's office generated $32.18 for every state
general revenue tax dollar the office received in 2013.
The $992.6 million generated in 2013 does not include more than
$1 billion in benefits that Madigan's office successfully recovered
through mediation and litigation, which is distributed directly to
Illinois residents, businesses and organizations, often in the form
of restitution.
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 For instance, the attorney general's Consumer Fraud Bureau
recovered and saved more than $1.1 billion on behalf of defrauded
Illinois residents and businesses in 2013, a sum that includes
relief that Illinois residents received directly from the $25
billion national foreclosure settlement that Madigan secured in
conjunction with her counterparts in other states, along with the
U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development. Over the last two years, Illinois residents have
directly received nearly $2 billion in financial relief in the form
of principal reductions, loan refinancing and cash payments as a
result of the settlement, which was the second-largest ever obtained
through joint action of state attorneys general.
Madigan's office also reached several major settlements with the
pharmaceutical industry in 2013. Among the most notable is a $1.6
billion joint state and federal settlement with Johnson & Johnson
and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals over its illegal
marketing of antipsychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega. Illinois
received $23.6 million under the agreement.
Madigan's office also has secured more than $85 million in unpaid
gasoline sales taxes through a joint enforcement initiative with the
Illinois Department of Revenue. This ongoing investigation is aimed
at cracking down on gas station owners who have evaded paying sales
taxes by falsely under-reporting 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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