Issues

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has worked to protect taxpayer dollars and increase revenue for the state. Through litigation aimed at recouping funds defrauded from or owed to the State, the Attorney General has recovered over $2 billion for Illinois in the past two years alone.

Lisa Madigan has faced the challenge of reducing the Office of the Attorney General’s budget while ensuring that the office continues to run efficiently and handles its duties effectively. The office has renegotiated contracts with vendors, reduced travel expenses, cut costs for all operations, and, when necessary, implemented lay-offs and furlough days. Because of recent cuts, Lisa Madigan herself will be taking 12 furlough days without pay this fiscal year.  And, as a result of many years of belt-tightening, this fiscal year, the Office of the Attorney General submitted to the legislature a budget that requested the lowest general revenue fund amount for the office in over a decade.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has taken a firm stand against fraud in public contracting. She has fought to recover taxpayer dollars from unscrupulous vendors who defraud the State, especially through Medicaid fraud. The Attorney General has recovered millions of dollars each year from dishonest companies through investigations and by working with private whistleblowers. 

In 2010, the Attorney General drafted legislation to make Illinois the first state to modernize its False Claims Act – the key weapon in the fight against public contracting fraud. The Attorney General has been working with State agencies and inspectors general on improving contract fraud detection, deterrence and recovery.

As Attorney General, Lisa Madigan has always stood up to Illinois’ powerbrokers on behalf of Illinois taxpayers.  In 2004, former Governor Blagojevich planned to mortgage the Thompson Center, a State office building in downtown Chicago, saddling the taxpayers with years of debt for a short-term infusion of cash.  In response, Attorney General Madigan issued an opinion finding that the transaction was unconstitutional and refused to allow the deal to proceed.  

Likewise, Attorney General Madigan successfully defended the denial of a state pension to former Governor George Ryan, who was convicted of corruption.     

In this time of declining State revenue, Attorney General Lisa Madigan understands that every effort to save taxpayer dollars is critical to the future of Illinois.