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IL Lawmaker Says Website Would Make Government More Transparent
An Illinois lawmaker says state government does a poor job of complying with Freedom of Information Act requests. State Rep. Mike Tryon ( R-Crystal Lake ) says during the Blagojevich Administration, Illinois citizens and the media often had to sue the administration to get the information they wanted.

He says government agencies would be more compliant, and save money, if the state is allowed to create the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal, or I-TAP. It would be a searchable database that would list, among other things, state employee salaries, state budget issues, state contracts, etc.

Tryon says this would keep government agencies in check because ordinary citizens will be better able to look for instances of favoritism, ghost payrolling or other problems.

Tryon says the Department of Central Management Services, or CMS, estimates creating such a website could cost as much as $600,000. But Tryon says that's a small price to pay for transparency. He says the state will eventually make that money back because agencies will eliminate about 90 percent of their costs normally associated with complying with a FOIA request.

Nine states currently have similar websites, and Tryon says he wants to take the best of what's out there and roll it into one website, which could be ready within a year.

(Illinois Radio Network)
02 25 09 by Newsroom
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