Six Months In, How Does Rauner Stack Up on Transparency Promises?

Reboot Illinois' Madeleine Doubek says Gov. Bruce Rauner's oft-stated campaign goal of bringing unprecedented transparency to the governor's office is proving more difficult in practice than in stump speeches:

Six months into his term, Bruce Rauner has become quite secretive for such a self-proclaimed transparent governor.

That's the challenge with setting such high campaign expectations, isn't it?

Rauner tried to out-reform the quintessential reformer Pat Quinn during the campaign. He was going to shake up Springfield and bring back Illinois. You remember the plaid shirts and the hefty sledgehammer. He promised openness and transparency at nearly every stop. Gov. Rauner jumped out of the inaugural gate, issuing an executive order to block executive branch employees from cashing in as lobbyists for a year after they leave and one requiring that information about his political hires be posted on the Internet.

More recently, and to his credit, Rauner did sign an executive order that stops a system, implemented under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which required state agencies to file something with the governor's office every time departments want to create a job, make a hire or transfer someone.

But more of the Rauner Rules of Operation don't ring of reform or transparency.

Check out which of those less-than-transparent Rules of Operation Doubek is talking about at Reboot Illinois.

One Rauner transparency concern raised by state government analysts is the use of gift cards as compensation for Rauner campaign volunteers. The cards came in $25, $50 and $75 denominations and the campaign at one point had more than 5,000 of them. See why the former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission called the practice "odd" at Reboot Illinois.

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