RELEASE HB 1

Cross posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:

The Decatur Herald and Review today editorializes in support of HB 1, the ban on pay to play contracting that passed the House unanimously and now sits in the Senate Rules Committee. The paper writes, "Illinois government has a terrible - and deserved - reputation for corruption in state government. House Bill 1 … deserves a hearing and a vote in the Senate. "

The H&R is the latest in a very long line of newspapers who have taken note of the Senate President's refusal to give this bill a vote. Yesterday the Daily Herald wrote "Jones should allow vote on contract bill." The Tribune urged passage, as did the Sun-Times, the State Journal Register, the Post Dispatch, the Southern Illinoisan, and the list goes on.

It's impossible to argue that the state gets better services by allowing contractors to give unlimited donations to the public official who oversees their contract. Perhaps that's why the Senate President's spokesperson suggested that they were holding the bill while working on language to make it even better.

This bill, however, has been sitting in the Senate for a month. The time for secret revisions is past. HB 1 is positioned to be voted out of the Senate and on to the Governor, and we call on the Senate President to let that happen.