Peoria Standard

Illinois Republicans are hoping that their Democratic colleagues will join the effort to make serious progress in some much-needed ethics reform. 

State Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Macomb) joined several other Republican senators at a May 17 Senate Republican Caucus news conference to discuss the importance and the urgency of reworking the statehouse's ethics rules. 

"We're here to discuss how we can best improve our processes to protect the people of Illinois against corruption and hold politicians accountable when they break the public trust," Tracy said. 

As a seasoned legislator and chairwoman of the Legislative Ethics Committee, Tracy said that she "is uniquely aware of the toll that public corruption can have on Illinois resources and working systems."

"There is no doubt that the accusations, probes and indictments that have riddled the majority Democratic caucus have many people, including us, concerned about the ethical standards and procedures of our state government," Tracy said. 

The senator said that she and her party are committed to ethics rules and procedural reform. Springfield Republicans recently countered the Democratic ethics bill, Senate Bill 4, with their own Senate Bill 1350, legislation that amplifies what Republicans call the weak attempts at reform in SB4. 

Tracy said she wants to see more transparency in government and the judicial branch given the proper tools to prosecute corrupt public officials. 

"For too many years, the corruption of a few bad actors has cast a shadow over the good work done by so many lawmakers in our capital," Tracy said. "We must not allow their efforts to be diminished any longer."

The legislation recently introduced would amend the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. The Republican version would allow the state attorney general to use grand jury trials for public corruption, issue subpoenas in corruption cases without permission from the legislators in the ethics committee and several other reform updates. 

"More than anything, we are here to restore the people of Illinois’ faith in our government," the senator continued. "They have to be tired of Illinois politicians and the political reputation preceding itself. So why are lawmakers not joining together bipartisanly and linking arms to get this done?"