Post-Madigan reforms

The Better Government Association now reports that Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan appears not to have the votes to keep his job this January.

Finally, enough Democrats are showing the spine to stand up to his political machine. With Madigan gone, maybe now’s the time to make some serious long overdue changes to the way Illinois goes about its business.

◆ End lobbying by elected officials, past and present. This has been the core source for corruption for so long. Bribery is an accepted way of doing business.

◆ End double- dipping. Elected officials should not have another job, especially a job that creates a direct conflict of interest with their elected position — such as a law firm that gets business from the state.

◆ Establish term limits. We should never again have the same single person in charge of Springfield for 30 years. Would a ballot vote by the citizens on the House speaker position be a reasonable way to limit influence? After all, the speaker’s decisions affect all the people of Illinois, not just those who live in the speaker’s Chicago district.

We’ve been talking ethics reform for so long that we are tired of hearing about it. But nothing has changed. We’re still sending elected officials off to prison through a revolving door.

I have lived in Illinois all of my life, so I don’t know how much greener the grass is on the other side. Seriously, do other states deal with this level of corruption? Or are we living in a bubble of our own unique creation?

Scot Sinclair, Third Lake Send letters to letters@suntimes.com.