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 State Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, has resigned from the
Illinois House of Representatives, according to The Daily Line Reporter Hannah
Meisel.
Arroyo was arrested Oct. 25 and charged with bribery of a state official.
According to the federal complaint, Arroyo tried to steer $2,500 a month to an
unnamed state senator in exchange for backing legislation related to gambling
sweepstakes. If convicted, Arroyo faces up to 10 years in prison.
The unnamed state senator to whom Arroyo allegedly floated the payments has been
cooperating with investigators since 2016, when the FBI obtained evidence that
the senator had submitted false income tax returns, according to the complaint.
“I’m going to give you this here,” Arroyo allegedly said while passing the state
senator his first bribe. “This is, this is, this is the jackpot.”
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin and House Speaker Mike Madigan had called for
Arroyo to resign.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was more lenient, calling only for Arroyo to step down from
his committee chairmanship, according to Springfield political blog Capitol Fax.
Arroyo was the chairman of the House Appropriations-Capital committee, through
which he steered Pritzker’s $45 billion infrastructure package earlier this
year. Arroyo’s legislative counterpart in the plan, state Sen. Martin Sandoval,
D-Chicago, saw his home and government offices raided by the FBI and IRS in
September. Sandoval has since stepped down as chairman of the Senate
Transportation Committee.
“It was an honor and a privilege to be chairman of this committee and to be able
to pass this $45 billion capital plan, the largest in the history of the state
of Illinois,” Arroyo said at a Pritzker press conference heralding the
infrastructure plan.
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That plan was funded in part by an expansion of
Illinois gambling and a doubling of the state’s gas tax, which now
stands as the third-highest in the nation, among other tax and fee
hikes.
Curbing Illinois corruption
Despite the cost and damage of political corruption in Illinois,
state lawmakers have done little to address it.
Pritzker and other legislative leaders should back commonsense
anti-corruption reforms for Illinois, many of which were included in
a 2009 state report released following the indictment of former Gov.
Rod Blagojevich. They include:
Strengthened revolving door restrictions on state lawmakers.
Empowering the Illinois legislative inspector general, which is a
muzzled watchdog office that must seek approval from state lawmakers
before opening a corruption investigation in the Illinois General
Assembly.
Mandating state lawmakers recuse themselves from votes in which they
have a conflict of interest.
Reforming the Illinois House rules, which grant more concentrated
power to the House speaker than any other legislative rules in the
country.
Using objective scoring criteria for capital projects, akin to
Virginia’s Smart Scale model. Illinois infrastructure dollars are
too often directed by clout rather than need.
Passing a bipartisan constitutional amendment to end politically
drawn legislative maps in Illinois.
Illinoisans shouldn’t have to wait on federal raids to curb
corruption.
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