It’s the Taxpayers’ Checkbook. Tribune endorses transparency.

After waiting nine months, we recently filed a lawsuit to compel the Illinois Comptroller to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and release the detailed state spending information- the “state checkbook.”

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune wrote a reasoned, thoughtful editorial outlining the public policy issues at stake in our lawsuit, For The Good of Illinois, Inc v. State of Illinois, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.

Please read the editorial here. Here are some highlights:

“Let a judge decide if the scope of the task outweighs the public benefit of releasing information that taxpayers are legally entitled to inspect. That should be a very high bar indeed.“

In her campaign to avoid producing the records, Judy Baar Topinka told Illinois Review, “there is no magical checkbook” while also saying the “State Checkbook is Already Online” (State Journal-Register).  She had a different story to Capitol Fax saying that our requested records were ’illegal‘.

The Tribune editorial cut through the Comptroller’s campaign of misinformation.

Now, we know the real reason: it just takes a bit of work. The Comptroller called the task, “unduly burdensome.” The Tribune wrote, ”this much-abused loophole lets officials withhold too much public data from Illinois citizens.”

We agree.

The Comptroller has staff resources of 305 employees and an annual payroll budget of $14.5 million.

Produce the records.