BGA Policy has long documented the perils that come with the judiciary being exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. This lack of public oversight puts those in the courts’ care, including kids, at risk. And it’s not how Illinois treats the other branches of government or how other states treat their courts. Even when the court is mandated to supply data, delays and lags prevent public accountability.

Now, Injustice Watch and the Chicago Tribune report that an ongoing Illinois Supreme Court contract with Tyler Technologies Inc. that started at $8.2 million in 2016 has ballooned to $98.3 million. That’s more than 1,000%, and it happened despite a state auditor’s criticism of a lack of independent oversight.

Supreme Court leaders defend the contract with Tyler, saying the tenfold increase in cost comes from expansion in size and scope of the project. 

Here’s the bottom line: Without transparency, how can the public have faith in the judiciary as stewards of the people’s taxes? Although contracts are housed with the comptroller, and are therefore available to the public along with some basic financial data the court chooses to share, without the access provided by the Freedom of Information Act, the public will always be kept in the dark on the full operations of the judiciary.

So, while your tax dollars go to the judicial branch to pay salaries and provide services, the courts are not mandated to respond to your request for information about staffing levels, pay scales or how funds are allocated.

This is not how a democracy is supposed to function. The judicial branch, like the rest of the government, works for the people. Its records are public records, and the public should have open and free access to them, just as it does with the other branches of government. For the past three years, BGA and the Court Transparency Coalition have been advocating to expand FOIA to cover the courts, and supporting HB1856, championed by Rep. Curtis Tarver, but it has not been granted a subject matter hearing by the legislature. 

BGA Policy will continue to call for the judicial branch to be subject to FOIA, but until public oversight increases, we expect bloated project expenses to be the norm.