Information maintained by the Legislative Reference Bureau
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GENERAL PROVISIONS
(5 ILCS 176/) Government Advertising Spending Transparency Act.

5 ILCS 176/1

    (5 ILCS 176/1)
    Sec. 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Government Advertising Spending Transparency Act.
(Source: P.A. 104-77, eff. 1-1-26.)

5 ILCS 176/5

    (5 ILCS 176/5)
    Sec. 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds and declares:
    (a) Illinois benefits from robust local news services that provide trusted and essential information to the community that limits corruption, encourages citizen participation, helps combat misinformation, and mitigates community and individual alienation.
    (b) Local news in Illinois and throughout the country is struggling with newspaper advertising dropping 82% nationally since 2000, contributing to a 57% drop in the number of reporters at newspapers and thousands of closures.
    (c) Local news outlets are trusted sources of information for communities throughout Illinois and advertising spending with these outlets carries a substantial benefit for the effective dissemination of important government information to the communities it serves.
    (d) Government initiatives to increase spending on local news advertising have been manifestly successful in both supporting local news outlets and improving the information diet of communities in several major cities.
    (e) The public has a right to know where government is spending its advertising dollars and what proportion of those dollars are going to local news outlets in this State.
(Source: P.A. 104-77, eff. 1-1-26.)

5 ILCS 176/15

    (5 ILCS 176/15)
    Sec. 15. Reporting requirements.
    (a) No later than October 1, 2026, and October 1 of each year thereafter, each State agency or department shall report the amount and distribution of its advertising spending to the General Assembly and post the report on its website.
    (b) The annual report described in subsection (a) shall include:
        (1) the overall amount of advertising spending made
    
by the State agency or department;
        (2) the names of each advertising vendor that
    
received advertising contracts from the State agency or department and the amount of those contracts;
        (3) the type of entity that received the advertising
    
spending, categorized by media type, including, but not limited to, search platforms, national news outlets, digital platforms, and local news outlets; and
        (4) the general subject matter of the advertising
    
placement, such as military recruitment, public health, or job training.
    (c) If a contracted vendor places advertisements on behalf of a State agency or department, the State agency or department shall make a good faith effort to collect from the vendor sufficient information to comply with paragraph (3) of subsection (b).
(Source: P.A. 104-77, eff. 1-1-26.)