Anti-government group snooping in state employees' personal info

An anti-government group that calls itself the Illinois Policy Institute has issued a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the state of Illinois, seeking personal information about every state employee.

This right-wing extremist group has asked to be given the names, agencies, titles and performance evaluations of every state worker. Clearly they intend to cause politically motivated mischief if given such private information.

AFSCME is fighting to stop this nakedly political breach of confidentiality. The union is urging Governor Quinn to direct his agencies to turn down any such request as unduly burdensome (imagine the cost in dollars and staff time required to photocopy personnel records of 65,000 state employees!). The Governor should immediately sign House Bill 5154--legislation passed by the House and Senate to preserve the appropriate confidentiality of employee files.

The Illinois Policy Institue's radical right-wing political agenda has included pushing to slash funding for state government, schools, and human services by billions of dollars. They also echoed the campaign of misinformation and lies behind the two-tier pension plan that slashed retirement benefits for future public employees. And the group has been a frequent participant in the ugly, angry "Tea Party" rallies that have directed hatred at government, public employees and even President Obama.

Observers have called the group "a thinly disguised propaganda arm" and its budget schemes "gussied-up junk policy research" and "a fairy tale that would whack education, health care and human services." The Illinois Policy Institute is closely linked to another right-wing group, Americans for Limited Government, that was stripped of its Illinois charitable status for failure to lawfully disclose its donors and activities in 2006.