Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act is not great, but it’s better than it was four years ago. However, the more lawmakers tinker with your right to know, the more likely it is that Illinois will revert to the Stone Age when it comes to information its residents deserve.

It is too easy for government bodies at every level to withhold public information, and the General Assembly might vote on two bills this week that would make it even easier.

The revisions to FOIA that lawmakers made in 2009, which took effect in 2010, included a provision to make public bodies pay attorneys’ fees — and fines — if they willfully violated the act.

Those fees and fines put teeth into the law. Public bodies would face consequences if they failed to deliver information to the people of Illinois.

The proposed law not only removes the provision for those fees and fines, it would allow public bodies to withhold a broader array of public records. Public bodies would be allowed to withhold facts — not opinions — about what they do. And, to make it worse, the changes would be retroactive to 2010.

That’s the first bill, SB2799, which originally was filed to amend the Illinois Act on Aging. By the end of May it became a bill that amended the Illinois Power Agency Act. Last week, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, filed an amendment that turned it into an FOIA-weakening bill. Such chicanery is evidence enough that this is a bad bill.

The second bill, HB3796, would charge residents up to $100 per FOIA request, which would keep average folks from seeking information from the government they finance.

The intent of the bill was to limit requests from residents who have become a nuisance because of their never-ending FOIA requests. However, the bill is so broad that it would deter almost every person from seeking information.

Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the bill in June, but the House overrode the veto Nov. 19. We hope senators kill the bill when is comes up.

The 2010 FOIA changes, which were called “historic” by lawmakers who voted for them, were under attack shortly after Quinn signed them into law. Lawmakers weakened the law three times in 2010.

Illinois FOIA should be strengthened. At the very least, legislators should stop trying to weaken it.

Jobless numbers: We hope we never again see double-digit unemployment, which plagued Rockford for five years. The recent numbers are OK but nothing to celebrate. October’s jobless rate was 8.4 percent, up from 8.2 percent in September. A year ago, it was 11.5 percent.

There’s a long way to go for Rockford to hit average. The state’s unemployment rate was 6.6 percent and the national rate was 5.8 percent in October.

Beating average is not much to shoot for, but it’s a lot better than where we were and where we are.

School tax levy unchanged: The Rockford School District could have raised your taxes without going to referendum. It didn’t.

Kudos to the School Board for voting last week to keep its tax levy flat for the upcoming tax cycle. That means Rockford schools are making do with the same amount of money they did the year before.

It’s the third straight year that the district decided to forego the rate of inflation that it could have received. Not taking the inflation increase, which would have meant $2.1 million for schools, saves the owner of a $100,000 house $29.

Winnebago County and the city of Rockford also decided to keep their tax levies flat. The schools, city and county account for about 80 percent of your property tax bill.

Holding the line on taxes is welcome relief for our too-high property tax bills.