It’s no secret that Illinois has had its fair share of ethics problems with governors in the past. Four out of Illinois’ last seven governors have ended up in prison, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, under whom Illinois’ current governor and Rauner’s opponent, Gov. Pat Quinn, served under as lieutenant governor. Rauner has tried to connect Quinn with Blagojevich’s illegal dealings, a move that is reinforced in the cover image of Quinn and Blagojevich together on the newest “Blueprint” document.

Besides being connected to Blagojevich, Rauner has also accused Quinn of hiring employees at the Illinois Department of Transportation illegally and has questioned Quinn’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative program, which some Republicans have called a “political slush fund.”

Rauner’s suggestions for reforming Illinois’ government practices to be more ethical:

1. Fire everyone who was illegally hired at IDOT and request a federal hiring monitor

2. Launch an online portal that lists all non-civil service hires

3. Implement a one-year ban on hiring former lobbyists as senior executive officials

4. Ban the use of outside contract lobbyists receiving state funds

5. Limit legislative leaders’ employment outside of government

6. Amend the Illinois constitution to extend recall provisions to statewide elected officials and members of the General Assembly

7. Stop pension payments to government employees convicted of public corruption crimes

8. Amend the constitution to allow multiple expulsions of legislators

9. Amend the constitution to limit the term allowances of elected officials to no more than eight years

10. Ensure all government money (especially that spent on preventing violence) is accounted for 

11. Provide information on General Assembly earmark spending to the public three days before legislators vote on spending

12. Amend the constitution so the legislature no longer has control over the legislative map-drawing process

Rauner has expressed support for many of these measures before, including his support of the campaign to amend the state constitution to impose term limits on elected officials and firing employees found to have been hired at IDOT illegally.

 

NEXT ARTICLE: Rauner camp denies access to journalism students, Rahm calls for Fallon to come back to Chicago

 

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