North Cook News

Fred Crespo introduced HB1704 in the Illinois House on Jan. 24, 2025, during the general assembly session 104, according to the Illinois General Assembly.

According to the Illinois General Assembly site, the legislature summarized the bill's official text as follows: "Amends the State Finance Act. Provides for the transfer of certain moneys into the Audit Expense Fund. Effective immediately"

The following is our breakdown, based on the actual bill text, and may include interpretation to clarify its provisions.

In essence, the bill amends the State Finance Act to facilitate the transfer of funds into the Audit Expense Fund, solely for uses authorized by the Illinois State Auditing Act. Effective immediately, the State Comptroller and Treasurer must transfer designated amounts from a comprehensive list of state funds to the Audit Expense Fund within 30 days of July 1, 2025. These funds are intended to cover costs associated with audits, studies, and investigations. Transfers from federal and state trust funds to the Audit Expense Fund are allowed only if specified and not prohibited by existing agreements. If funds in any specified account are insufficient, the transfer amount will be supplemented from the General Revenue Fund. Additionally, the Auditor General is empowered to bill certain private and other entities for audits, with revenues directed to the Audit Expense Fund. Any excess funds transferred beyond actual needs must be returned to their original fund by September 30 of each fiscal year or as soon as practicable.

Fred Crespo has proposed another two bills since the beginning of the 104th session.

Crespo graduated from Loyola the University of Chicago in 1980 with a BS.

Fred Crespo is currently serving in the Illinois State House, representing the state's 44th House District. He replaced previous state representative Terry R. Parke in 2007.

Bills in Illinois follow a multi-step legislative process, beginning with introduction in either the House or Senate, followed by committee review, floor debates, and votes in both chambers before reaching the governor for approval or veto. The General Assembly operates on a biennial schedule, and while typically thousands of bills are introduced each session, only a fraction successfully pass through the process to become law.

You can read more about bills and other measures here.

Bill Number	Date Introduced	Short Description
HB1704	01/24/2025	Amends the State Finance Act. Provides for the transfer of certain moneys into the Audit Expense Fund. Effective immediately
HB1702	01/24/2025	Appropriates the sum of $8,620,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Auditor General to meet the ordinary and contingent expenses of the Office of the Auditor General. Appropriates $35,592,488 to the Auditor General from the Audit Expense Fund for administrative and operations expenses and audits, studies, investigations, and expenses related to actuarial services. Effective July 1, 2025.
HB1703	01/24/2025	Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. Provides that an Executive Inspector General may issue a public statement when the Executive Inspector General concludes its investigation and (i) recommends systemic or procedural action based on the investigation or (ii) finds reasonable cause to believe that a violation has occurred and the Executive Inspector General believes that a complaint concerning the investigation should not be filed by the Attorney General with the Executive Ethics Commission. Limits the scope of a public statement that may be issued. Provides that, before issuing a public statement, the Executive Inspector General shall share the public statement with the agency head and ultimate jurisdictional authority affected by the investigation and allow the agency head and ultimate jurisdictional authority affected by the investigation a period of 10 business days to provide the Executive Inspector General with a response to the proposed public statement, which must be included with the public statement. Effective immediately.