Thousands of Illinois workers are no longer sending a part of their paycheck to one of the state’s most politically active unions.

Union’s own reporting shows only 17% of overall spending went for “representational activities” in 2018. Just what are Illinois public employees paying for?

State workers don’t really know much about how AFSCME spent $7.7 million on politics. That’s because records don’t detail and the union’s Illinois chapter obscures how most of the money was used.

Federal financial filings from Illinois’ largest government union show only 20 percent of its spending goes toward representing its members.

Of the more than 3,700 Illinois state workers who stopped sending part of every paycheck to a union, 2,800 stopped sending their money to AFSCME.

State records show AFSCME has funneled at least $1.4 million to Michael Madigan and Madigan-controlled committees in the past five years – including at least $823,200 just this year.

AFSCME – the largest government worker union in the state – may pull off one of the most insulting waiting games in state history. The payoff? More than $3 billion, courtesy of Illinois taxpayers.

State records show AFSCME Council 31 funnels membership dues into its political action committee, which just gave a record-breaking $767,800 donation to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.

One school district in New Jersey has stopped deducting union dues and fees until it has new authorizations from employees to do so – a step in line with what the U.S. Supreme Court demanded of state and local government employers and government unions in Janus v. AFSCME. Illinois governments should follow suit.