Metro East Sun

Former Republican state House candidate Mike Babcock laments former state Sen. Terry Link’s guilty plea in his federal corruption case was far too predictable.

“It’s just another sign of how bad and rampant corruption has become in Springfield,” Babcock told the Metro East Sun. “It screams for the need for real ethics reforms that start with term limits.”

Link, who’s served in the 30th District since 1997 and was a member of the Legislative Ethics Commission, pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges stemming from a faulty tax return filing. He officially retired from the Senate this month, just a month after federal authorities formally charged him with failing to report income on his 2016 tax return to the IRS. In filing charges, authorities asserted his earnings “substantially exceeded” the $264,450 he reported for that year.

“It’s really a sad commentary when you have a guy on the ethics committee, someone preaching to us about ethics, that’s cheating on his own taxes,” Babcock added. “It’s a slap in the face to all the taxpayers of this state.”

Link, from Vernon Hills, became the fourth Democrat state lawmaker to face federal corruption charges this year, joining state Sen. Thomas Cullerton, former Sen. Martin Sandoval and state Rep. Luis Arroyo.

"Again, it screams for reform and term limits,” Babcock said. “I don’t think any state representative or senator should be able to serve more than eight years. After that, we should have new leaders.”

Babcock said the state’s recently approved $42 billion budget is another example of too many career politicians being in control to simply sign off on each other’s proposals.  

“Year after year, they put budgets in place where we spend more than we take in,” he said. “Still, no one seems to learn a lesson. It’s not new people that are doing this, just the same career politicians.”