Illinois Spends $15 Million on 102 State’s Attorney Salaries – Who Don’t Prosecute Public Corruption

Illinois is the Super Bowl of corruption. Yet, there are virtually zero prosecutions of public corruption cases from the 102 State’s Attorneys – publicly elected in each county.

In 75 Illinois counties, the elected state’s attorney is a Republican, while the remaining 27 are Democrats. Each swears an oath to uphold the laws of the state – including the anti-corruption statutes.

Yet, the prosecution of public corruption in Illinois is rare. Only the feds seem to bring cases.

It doesn’t have to be this way. However, it is Illinois and it’s complicated – by design.

State’s attorneys prosecute cases brought to them by law enforcement. If no public corruption cases are investigated by law enforcement, then no cases will be prosecuted.

Local law enforcement in Illinois isn’t even trained in how to investigate public corruption. From Kirk Allen of the Edgar County Watchdogs:

“During our investigation of the College of DuPage and the Police Training Acadamy at the College, we were told by the Law Enforcement Training Standards Board that they do not have training curriculum pertaining to public corruption.”

“If the Police are not trained how to identify public corruption it’s no wonder public corruption is alive and well in Illinois."

So, public corruption in Illinois flourishes: State’s attorneys don’t prosecute the cases, because law enforcement doesn’t bring them cases. Law enforcement doesn’t investigate the cases, because they are not even trained on investigating public corruption.

And the corrupt cycle continues in the Land of Lincoln, year after year!

In fact, the Republican state’s attorney in downstate Sangamon County, which encompasses the state capitol building in Springfield, could prosecute any crimes committed in the county by any official including the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, speaker of the house, president of the senate, etc.

Therefore, local law enforcement and the state police must not be investigating public crimes at the state capitol. However, the feds have shown it’s a target rich environment. In a recent period, four of the last nine governors spent time in the federal penitentiary and in 2013, two governors were in prison at the same time.

State’s Attorneys do have powers to build criminal cases including the power to convene grand juries and issue subpoenas. Quite obviously, they aren’t being proactive.

The average state’s attorney in 2019 made about $149,000, according to data compiled by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com. In total, therefore, taxpayers paid out approximately $15,000,000 in annual compensation.

Cook County, which includes Chicago, has one of the largest State’s Attorneys offices in the country with a budget of $176 million. Headed by Kim Foxx, who made $198,000 in 2019, the office has come under fire recently for its lack of prosecution of even the most violent crimes, as well as its mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case.

State’s attorneys in downstate Illinois make considerably less with some making $133,000 per year. In DuPage County, SA Bob Berlin earned $177,461 and so did the Sangamon County prosecutor.

Chicago consistently ranks as the most corrupt city in the nation, and Illinois is the second most corrupt state in America.

This raises the questions: Where are all the Illinois State’s Attorneys? 

The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.