Nice list Many local taxing bodies in Illinois took a giant leap forward in 2013 when it comes to improving online transparency. And many local officials worked with the Illinois Policy Institute to meet our online transparency standards, per the 10-Point Transparency Checklist. Our report “Obstructed views: Illinois’ 102 county online transparency audit” showed that...

A new report looking at the state’s 25 largest municipalities shows a wide disparity in citizens’ access to basic government information online from community to community. In places such as Evanston, Skokie and Orland Park, citizens have excellent access to basic financial and participatory information online, but the same isn’t true in many other areas....

by Andrew Wyatt In April 1917, Ella Fitzgerald was born, the United States joined World War I and the first board meeting of the newly organized village of Mount Prospect was held at William Wille’s Hall. And if you wanted to, you could pull up the minutes from this inaugural meeting online. That’s because the...

Imagine an Illinois economy so vibrant that companies felt they had to be in Illinois to reach their fullest potential. Imagine a tax environment so competitive that companies across the country battled to get a piece of Illinois real estate. Keep imagining, because this certainly isn’t a reality. The fact is, Illinois ranks 48th in economic...

Since the city of Chicago began Illinois

The BGA's volunteer Citizen Watchdog Training is a free program that empowers citizens to keep an eye on their government and report about what's going on in their local communities.

by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Competitive bidding rules help governments save money, increase transparency, and avoid “pay-to-play” politics. Unfortunately, government officials don’t always play by the rules. The Chicago Tribune reports: City officials circumvented competitive bidding rules to steer a $23 million digital-radio contract to Schaumburg-based Motorola, according to City Hall’s top watchdog and documents obtained by the Tribune. Inspector General...

On Monday, the council agreed to publish on the city