Close the Loophole. Stop pay-to-play politics.

Companies doing business with the City of Chicago can donate $1,500. Yet, owners of those same companies can make individual donations beyond the $1,500 legal limit. When businesses and their owners are not treated the same, the law creates a loophole for city contractors to exercise more power over municipal government. An Ethics Reform Ordinance introduced by Alderman Matt Martin would have effectively closed this loophole. But the provision was stripped away due to a lack of support from city council members.

In a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times, RFI’s Executive Director weighs in, “The City Council should advance Martin’s ordinance and finally put these long-awaited ethics reforms into law. But the contractor contribution provision remains an important piece of unfinished business. We hope Council members will revisit it soon and close a loophole that leaves Chicago’s safeguards against pay-to-play politics weaker than they should be.”