Kathie Hansen | Contributed photo
Kathie Hansen | Contributed photo
Republican state House hopeful Kathie Hansen sees few limits in all the ways a $550 million-plus influx could boost the state’s fragile economy.
“It could go a long way in paying down our debt, getting our pension system more in order,” Hansen told the Rockford Sun. “You name it, because the needs are endless.”
A new University of Illinois at Chicago analysis finds that the state’s culture of corruption annually costs taxpayers in the neighborhood of $556 million. Researchers also noted Illinois ranks as the second-most corrupt state in the country (behind Louisiana) and Chicago is the most corrupt city in the U.S., all of which goes a long way in crippling the state’s chances for economic growth.
Over the last two decades, researchers also found the state’s corruption price-tag easily tops $10 billion, or around $830 per resident.
This year alone, at least four state lawmakers have been indicted on corruption charges, adding to the state’s long and sordid political history that includes four governors having been sentenced to prison over the last five decades. Presently, longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan finds himself cast as a central figure in the ongoing federal probe involving utility giant ComEd and a pay-for-play scheme.
“This has gotten out of control and I would like to see us start to prosecute more people and hold more people accountable for the damage they’re doing to this state,” added Hansen, who is now running against state Rep. Maurice West Jr. (D-Rockford) in the 67th District.
“For starters, I would like to change the law allowing a state representative to be a lobbyist at the same time they’re supposed to be serving the needs of the people,” she added. “To me, that’s just begging for corruption. On one end, you’ve got a person lobbying for something, then going to their desk to write the laws overseeing it.”
Hansen said she wonders how much of the reform she thinks needs to happen can as long as Madigan is still at the helm.
“He needs to go,” she said. “That’s where it needs to start.”
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