Peoria Standard

Minority spokesperson for the Senate Ethics Committee and chairwoman of the Senate Ethics Commission, Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) stated that there’s more work to do after the 102nd General Assembly approved an ethics reform package addressing the state’s ethical issues.

Previously, Tracy hoped that “discussions become more inclusive of ideas so that we can present a final package that roots out corruption and begins to restore public trust,” and she is pleased with how matters have moved forward before the spring session ended.

“While there is no denying there is a lot more work to be done, I'm pleased to know that our spring session did at least accomplish the ethics package that was enacted and we will continue to send a meaningful ethics reform package to the governor,” Tracy said at a news conference.

She stressed that the GOP understands how critical ethics reform is.

“One of the main issues our caucus focused on was fixing government corruption — that was a priority of ours this session,” Tracy explained. “Well, it took off to a very rocky and slow start. We are happy to stand here today knowing that we played a major part in helping root out the corruption that plagues this building. By forcing our way to the table, the Senate Republicans were able to make what was a very watered-down weak proposal, one that we can be proud of today. We gave our ideas and fortunately, they were heeded and listened to. With that being said we are not done at all.”

In a podcast interview, Tracy said that the Republicans are willing to work across the aisle to stop the corruption in the state of Illinois.

“Mark my words, we have much more work to do,” she declared. "We are going to push for the ideas that didn't make it into this final package and we will continue to advocate for the Attorney General powers to use a statewide grand jury to investigate, indict, and prosecute public corruption crimes so that we aren't always waiting for the federal government to come in to prosecute and clean up our mess. We're not giving up on the need to enact a stronger legislator-to-lobbyist revolving door so that sitting legislators can't resign and become a lobbyist the very next day.”

One of the provisions of Senate Bill 539 is allowing the Legislative Inspector General to initiate a political corruption investigation without approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission.

A study revealed that Illinois had the most federal public corruption convictions by Judicial District from 1976 to 2019 and is among the top 10 states with the most convictions per capita covering the same period.