Post the State of Illinois Budget Online So Taxpayers can Vote on it

To: Governor Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, U.S. Senator Barak Obama, all Illinois State Senators, and all Illinois State Representatives.

Petition for Detailed State Budget to be Posted Online And to Allow the Public to Vote on Each Item.

The State of Illinois uses a Budget to determine how much income tax to collect from Illinois residents. The State continually claims it is in a Budget crisis and either must raise taxes or make drastic spending cuts. It would be much easier for the Public to determine what should be done if they too had access to all the facts and figures upon which the elected officials are making their claims. However, The Budget, perhaps the single most important item the State is responsible for, is not posted on the State website. The website has transcripts of speeches by the Governor discussing the Budget. That is not enough. Illinois taxpayers have a right to more than a generalized report from the Governor. We have a right to direct oversight of the Budget both in its entirety and in the particulars of where all the money goes, and and to participate in deciding how the money is spent. Elected officials need to be accountable for how they spend our money. Every publicly held corporation has to make its balance sheet available to investors. There is absolutely no reason for this information to be kept a secret. Let Illinois taxpayers in on both the broad picture and the line-item breakdown of how their money is being spent!



1) Post a line-item version of the current and proposed State Budget on the State website.

2) Allow the public to "vote" on each item by clicking on "yes" or "no" boxes, with the results viewable online.