Illinois is known as one of the most corrupt states in the nation.

Did you know we have the 2nd highest paid Governor in the nation?
One of the highest paid legislatures?
That the Illinois House of Representatives has been controlled by one man, the current Speaker of the House (SoH) for decades?

Did you know that 30% of the current members of the Illinois General Assembly first came to the legislature through appointments?

Did you know that often a retiring legislator will resign early just so his party can pick his successor? In at least one instance the wife of the resigning legislator was appointed.

Did you know legislator's retirement pay is not based on pay earned while they were a legislator, but on salary to positions made by the Governor? Many retired legislators (at least 42) have a legislative pension larger than their legislative salary.

Did you know Legislators can retire from their part-time position earlier than any other state employee and at a higher percentage of pay?

Did you know that with the current redistricting a resident of Northern Springfield , for example, now has his state Senator in Bloomington, 60 miles away?

Did you know the Legislature increased the number of leadership positions to 167 from 30 in 1987, under the current Speaker of the House direction? (The Speaker decides who is going to get that extra $9,000 a year leadership bonus, by the way.)

Did you know their Leadership Bonus is included in their pension calculations?

Did you know the past president of the Senate got a $40,000 pension raise after his first year of retirment?
The Speaker decides when committees meet, he decides what bills get brought to a vote, he controls the 2nd largest legislative Campaign fund in the nation and uses that cash and politicians desire for re-election to do his will. It's all legal and Illinois voters are held hostage to his cash and his district in Cook County that re-elects him.

Because of the 1980 "Cutback Amendment" (now known as the Legislative Lottery Law) the current Speaker has been SoH since 1982, with the exception of 1995–1996.

Under this Legislators Lottery Law they always win and the voters always lose.

A Constitutional Convention can:
Impose leadership position term limits on legislators,
Reduce Legislator pay to equal the median of Illinois income,
Require computer generated redistricting as in Iowa,
Reduce the automatic 3% raise every state retiree receives annually,
Cap pension payouts,
Combine the 5 different pension systems into one,
Reverse the political power consolidation,
End appointments to elected positions by requiring elections to be held and
Require the General Assembly to meet only every two years as they do in Texas.

It's time to end this Legislator Lottery and call for a Constitutional Convention for the reforms that corrupt our way of doing business.

By signing this petition, we'll get their attention that we are seriously tired of "business as usual".