A newly proposed senate bill would prohibit lawmakers in Springfield from having ownership in or being compensated by the gaming industry while still in office.
Introduced by Illinois state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville), SB 2318 would also extend to immediate family members of lawmaker as well as their staffers. It is the latest measure from an assortment of ethics bills proposed by Plummer that are designed to root out conflicts of interest between members of the General Assembly and some of the industries over which they hold influence.
“If the average Illinois citizen knew their elected officials were making laws to create and expand protected industries from which they are themselves earning money, they would be disgusted,” Plummer said in a press release. “But that’s what's happening and it needs to stop, immediately. If we’re going to restore the trust of the people of Illinois in their state government, we have to make sure strong and independent voices exist to represent the reform measures that are common sense and necessary to fix our broken system.”
The law would also ban the same groups from holding anything more than a passive interest in any publicly traded gaming enterprise.
“Illinoisans know right and wrong,” Plummer said in the release. “Their lawmakers should know right and wrong, too. In a perfect world, politicians wouldn’t use their positions to profiteer, but Illinois, as we all know, is not a perfect world.”
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