Sangamon Sun

Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) is criticizing Gov. J.B. Pritzker after a report by the Better Government Association (BGA) found that his blind trust had invested in a state contractor.

“Today we see with this report from BGA the continuation of the governor continuing to break the promises that he's made to the people of Illinois. We talked about it a lot last year, his broken promises with redistricting,” Butler said. “He promised he wasn't going to sign maps that were drawn by politicians and he signed multiple maps that were drawn by politicians. Today, we see the way he's broken his promise to the people of Illinois to be open and transparent, knowing about his conflicts of interest when it comes to his finances. In fact, as governor-elect his spokesperson said he has taken steps to ensure that the Illinois governor's office operates free of any financial conflict of interest and upholds the highest ethical standards during his term in office.”

Butler said that the financial mess is contrary to what the report states.

“The way that the governor has opaquely operated his office through not only this, his trusts, that have now broken the trust of the people of Illinois, but also the way he operates his office through things like paying his staff through his own personal funds that we know nothing about. This really is something that is astounding when we look at it today and it really raises a lot of questions about the governor's finances, his lack of transparency on this,” he said.

According to a news release from the Better Government Association, Centene has collected over $2.6 billion from state Medicaid contracts since 2021 with the company telling the BGA that it did not know that Pritzker was a shareholder.

Butler said it is imperative that the people find out what Pritzker had done with the funds.

“There's a whole host of questions here today and so this is something that we need to continue to be vigilant about. We need to continue to strengthen our ethics laws under this. I think this is really one of the things that that comes out of this today,” he said. “Other states operate in different manners than we do in Illinois when it comes to blind trusts and that's something we really need to continue to take a look at.

Ethics reform is the chief goal among the House Republicans' agenda, according to Butler.

“We're going to continue to push these issues and make sure that the governor's held accountable on these things,” he said.

Pritzker’s camp has reported that the governor did not play a role with the investments in his blind trust.