In Southern Illinois that would mean the closing of the Southern Illinois Art and Artisans Center at Rend Lake off of Exit 77 on Interstate 57, as well as similar facilities in Lockport and Chicago, as well as the main state museum in Springfield and the Dickson Mounds museum and historic site.
The Rend Lake center's hours had already been cut to five days a week, open on just Wednesday through Sunday. The 15,000 square foot facility includes Artisans Shop and the Southern Illinois Art Gallery.
Greg Hines of Crain's Chicago Business has the full story.
The other regional site on the cutting block is the Hardin County Work Camp in the Department of Corrections which houses 180 inmates that are toward the end of their terms as well as 60 staff. Because it's a work camp, the impact will also be felt by area communities and local governments who rely on the free labor for cleanup projects. The inmates have been credited for helping save the village of Old Shawneetown more than once with their sandbagging.
Lawmakers are expected to return to Springfield in about two weeks for a summer overtime session to deal with a number of major issues including the budget, pension reform, various ways to improve the state's job climate to counter the needed tax increases that are expected to pass in the end, a capital projects bill as well as possible expansion of gambling.
Tuesday's move by the governor is just the latest skirmish in the budget battle, and is not likely to actually go into effect if a new balance budget is passed. However if lawmakers don't compromise then expect the cuts to stay and more to follow as the latest move only tallies up to $400 million in saving, just a tenth of what's needed.
The move comes two days after lawmakers passed SB 1728 over the weekend that would establish the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum as a separate agency and move the Illinois State Museum sites to Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Doug Finke and the State Journal-Register has the story.
More on that proposal can be found over at IllinoisHistory.com. Lawmakers had passed that version of the bill over a similar bill that would have moved the remaining parts of IHPA over to a new division of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity that would also include the state's tourism and film offices.
Another part of Tuesday's announcement included deferring any actions on new film production tax credits until the state's budget situation improved. It's a reasonable move that may or may not withstand the scrutiny of the state's courts considering the credits are part of the state's tax code.
The governor's announcement of all the cuts follows below:
No comments:
Post a Comment