By Bill Cameron, WLS News
In state politics…one of the candidates in next year’s statewide elections is telling Bill Cameron she’s not ready to endorse one of the more popular money-saving ideas in Springfield.
You could save millions by merging the offices of State Treasurer and Comptroller, but City Clerk Susana Mendoza – a Democrat running for comptroller- tells WLS-AM she’s not so sure.
“You know, it’s an interesting time right now. You see that the comptroller’s office right now is not independent of the Governor’s office. So, maybe in the past, people were talking about ‘Oh, let’s just combine the offices and it’s all good,’ but I think right now you can see where there might be value in still having an independently elected office that ultimately is responsible for writing the checks and prioritizing not just payments but also the fiscal and moral health of the state,” said Mendoza.
But her primary opponent State Senator Dan Biss is for the merger and says the merged office could be that kind of check, and he adds this: “The kind of old political power structures that have always been happy to have as many different offices, as many different political patronage jobs as possible and I just don’t think that’s the best way forward for the state of Illinois.
@ 2015 WLS News
