A former Chicago Public Schools principal convinced her employees to falsely charge for overtime and give her the money, claiming it would go for school expenses. Charges state she instead paid her mortgage.

Illinois’ high levels of corruption damage the state’s economy, costing it $10.6 billion since 2000. States with higher levels of corruption average lower levels of economic growth.

Chicago is the most corrupt city, and Illinois the second-most corrupt state, in the nation, according to a recent report by the University of Illinois at Chicago. But corruption in Illinois is more than a buzzword. It comes with social and economic costs. Not only does corruption lessen residents’ faith in the government, it decreases...

This year was full of corruption and mismanagement from public officials, but four instances in particular stand out.

October’s headlines featured backroom deals and financial mismanagement, all at taxpayers’ expense.

Several instances of corruption and mismanagement of public property and trust came to light in March and included new developments in cases involving Chicago Public Schools’ former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In January several instances of corruption, influence peddling and mismanagement across Illinois were brought to light, from the College of DuPage’s expense-account mismanagement, to Chicago’s red-light-camera bribery case.

From taxpayer- and donor-funded spending sprees by the president of an Illinois public college, to Chicago’s red-light-camera ticketing and kick-back schemes, 2015 has been rife with instances of public corruption and lack of government transparency.

November saw Chicago’s City Council let the term of the legislative inspector general, who is tasked with overseeing City Council, expire without hiring a replacement, as well as several other instances of breach of public trust and influence peddling around the state.

October saw a former Chicago Public Schools CEO plead guilty to wire fraud and several other instances of criminal charges and civil lawsuits against public officials, as well as crony deals between businesses and government.