East Central Reporter

A new study that finds rising corruption in Illinois comes with a growing price tag for already overburdened taxpayers comes as no great surprise to state Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland).

“I think the survey concludes what we’ve all known for years and years because we’ve felt and lived it,” Miller told the East Central Reporter. “Lawmakers simply have not been willing to address the issue and a lot of it has resulted in trial lawyers and big unions owning the state to do what they see to be fit.”

The University of Illinois-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.

Jacobs said it’s all left him with a laundry list of things that need to happen to change the culture in Springfield.

“The spiral continues, Miller added. “It brings to mind the old cliché that everything falls with poor leadership and we’ve had the latter now for a minimum of 40 years.”

Through it all, Miller said he still holds out hope that the level of change so many tell him they want to see could be on the horizon.

“I think slowly but surely the citizenry is waking up and they’re finally tired of getting the same old thing,” he said. “I mean Chicago’s burning and the Magnificent Mile is turning into a stretch of destruction.”