Bill Text: IL HR0358 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Governor Rauner to end the frivolous spending at the Department of Innovation and Technology. Admonishes Secretary Bhatt and urges him to immediately cancel the subscriptions and create a department that is more open and transparent going forward.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 14)
Status: (Failed) 2019-01-08 - Session Sine Die [HR0358 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2017-HR0358-Introduced.html
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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The Department of Innovation and Technology is a | ||||||
| 3 | State agency that was created
under an executive order by | ||||||
| 4 | Governor Bruce Rauner; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, The Department is extremely opaque and lacks | ||||||
| 6 | significant transparency
requirements to which other State | ||||||
| 7 | agencies are subject; for example, $71 million was transferred | ||||||
| 8 | by then Comptroller Leslie Munger out of the General Revenue | ||||||
| 9 | Fund and deposited into various other funds used by the | ||||||
| 10 | Department and the Department of Central Management Services; | ||||||
| 11 | those funds already had healthy balances; and
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| 12 | WHEREAS, Illinois is engaged in a historic budget impasse | ||||||
| 13 | that has caused
serious damage to the State and its citizens | ||||||
| 14 | including: an increase in the State's backlog of bills to
over | ||||||
| 15 | $12.7 billion; cuts to vital services for our most vulnerable | ||||||
| 16 | residents
including domestic violence victims, the | ||||||
| 17 | developmentally disabled, and senior citizens; cuts to
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| 18 | childcare that eliminated affordable daycare for 47,000 | ||||||
| 19 | children; a substantial reduction in funding for
MAP grants for | ||||||
| 20 | low income students; State university credit rating downgrades | ||||||
| 21 | to junk status;
and drastic cuts to life-saving breast and | ||||||
| 22 | cervical cancer screenings; and
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| 1 | WHEREAS, Recent reports in the news media have brought to | ||||||
| 2 | light the fact that the Secretary
of the Department of | ||||||
| 3 | Innovation and Technology, Hardik Bhatt, who is paid $145,000 a | ||||||
| 4 | year,
spent $208,000 on annual membership costs for | ||||||
| 5 | professional subscriptions; therefore, be it
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| 6 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 7 | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 8 | Governor Rauner is urged to end the frivolous spending that is | ||||||
| 9 | currently taking place at the Department of Innovation and | ||||||
| 10 | Technology while the people of Illinois suffer; and be it | ||||||
| 11 | further
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| 12 | RESOLVED, That we admonish Secretary Bhatt, and urge him to | ||||||
| 13 | immediately cancel the subscriptions and seek to create a | ||||||
| 14 | department that is more open and transparent going forward; and | ||||||
| 15 | be it further
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| 16 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | ||||||
| 17 | delivered to Governor Rauner and Secretary Bhatt.
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