- Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Media
- Mike Frerichs. Problem Solved.
Someone needs to be appointed Illinois comptroller to succeed the late Judy Baar Topinka, who died suddenly this week. The situation is perplexing.
Cross wasn’t elected. He lost a squeaker to Mike Frerichs. I’m not sure what the state constitution has to say on the subject, but in a sensible world one governor or the other would appoint Frerichs comptroller too. It would be an elegant way to save millions of dollars, and during the four years of Frerich’s double term, Illinois could amend its constitution to make the arrangement permanent.
We, along with dozens of lawmakers, have called for the two offices to be combined. That would save roughly $12 million a year.
The Illinois Senate in 2011 voted 55-0 to pass a constitutional amendment that would combine the offices. But House Democrats, led by Speaker Michael Madigan, blocked that measure from coming to a vote on the House floor.
There you go. One more maddening example of how the Madigan stranglehold on the House wastes your money and protects the status quo.
