It’s hard to believe, but it’s been more than a year since news broke of Federal and State investigations being launched into potentially criminal irregularities in the personal campaign finances of our newly-appointed State Auditor General Frank Mautino. It’s been more than a year since lawmakers and the State Board of Elections repeatedly demanded information from Auditor General Mautino about the troubling revelations. With all of these months having passed, we must be closer to getting the answers Illinois taxpayers deserve, right? Wrong. After more than a year our Auditor General continues to refuse to answer questions or provide information, and yet remains on the job as Auditor General.
A little background to refresh your memory: I, along with a group of more than 20 House and Senate Lawmakers had for months last year made repeated requests of Auditor General Mautino to provide the General Assembly with answers to serious questions about his campaign finances. We made five separate requests of him and his attorneys between February and June. Each time, he refused to provide information. In addition, The State Board of Elections gave him two deadlines last year to produce information required for their investigation. He again refused. So, for more than a year we have had a man serving as the taxpayers’ top financial watchdog who has refused over and over again to answer questions about serious, possibly criminal problems with his own finances.
Just last month, he doubled-down on his stonewalling strategy. With his case again coming before a hearing of the State Board of Elections, he chose to not even attend the hearing, but through his attorney, simply asserted his wish to exercise his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
For our Auditor General, the stonewalling strategy is working. He’s made it through more than a year under criminal investigation without providing any answers or information, all-the-while taxpayers have been forced to continue paying his salary. A truly unhappy anniversary indeed …for everyone except our Auditor General.
For nearly a year, many of my fellow legislators and I have urged Auditor General Mautino to do the right thing: provide the answers needed to resolve the investigations, or step down. It’s now obvious that he has no intention of doing either so the General Assembly must take action to remove him from office. I am sponsoring House Joint Resolution 9 that will do just that, and I will be pushing hard for it to receive a fair hearing in the House yet this spring. Illinois families deserve a Government we can trust and believe in; and we can no longer believe in our Auditor General.
