Peoria Standard

Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) is calling for ethics reform and transparency following a Better Government Associate (BGA) report that found the blind trust set up to manage Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s portfolio had invested in a state contractor.

In a recent news conference regarding the BGA report, Butler highlighted claims that the blind trust had bought stock in health insurance giant Centene Corp. 

“Today we see with this report from BGA, the continuation of the governor continuing to break the promises that he's made to the people of Illinois,” Butler said in the conference. “... Today, we see the way he's broken his promise to the people of Illinois to be open and transparent, knowing about his conflicts of interest when it comes to his finances.”

According to the BGA report, the purchase of stock in Centene was made on behalf of the governor by trustees at Northern Trust, appointed by Pritzker to manage his portfolio and separate investment decisions from his role as governor. 

“The way that the governor has opaquely operated his office through not only this, his trusts, that have now broken the trust of the people of Illinois, but also the way he operates his office through things like paying his staff through his own personal funds that we know nothing about,” Butler said. “This really is something that is astounding when we look at it today and it really raises a lot of questions about the governor's finances, his lack of transparency on this.”

Among comments, Butler raised questions as to what the governor is doing with his money, including where the $90 million he transferred to his campaign came from.

“There's a whole host of questions here today and so this is something that we need to continue to be vigilant about. We need to continue to strengthen our ethics laws under this,” Butler said. “... Ethics as you know is at the top of the agenda for the House Republicans. we're going to continue to push these issues and make sure that the governor's held accountable on these things.”

Centene collected more than $2.6 billion from the state’s Medicaid contracts in the first half of 2021, the BGA report states.

According to the report, Centene released a statement to the BGA stating it was not aware that Pritzker was a record holder of its stock.

Pritzker’s attorney and his campaign spokesperson said that Pritzker had no part in any of the investments in his blind trust.