ILL-inois: Hours may be cut in autumn at state historic sites

Carl Sandburg birthplace,
Galesburg, IL

Nearly twenty percent of the budget of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency--$1.1 million--was cut by state lawmakers earlier this year.

However, Enjoy Illinois, an arm of the state office of tourism, flushed away $127,000 on a bizarre Mini Abe ad shown during halftime of this year's Super Bowl.

Oh, spare me the "different agency" talk. It's not as if state funds aren't fungible. But if that ad and others like it are effective, Land of Lincoln travelers may face fewer days and hours to visit our historic sites.

From the Peoria Journal Star:

No state historic sites will close for now because of budget cuts, but many could see reduced hours after the Labor Day holiday.

"The governor's office has given us some direction in how we will move forward with budget implementation," said Amy Martin, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. "We will be looking to maintain services as best possible through the rest of this calendar year and hope the budget for IHPA will be restored in November or January."

Don't count on that happening.

Some sites the state owns are of questionable historical value and receive few visitors, these include Byrant Cottage, the Vachel Lindsey (who?) Home, and the Postville Courthouse. The state should cash their chips on these places and ignore the howls of legislators whose districts include these places and see if a private foundation wants to run them

ILL-inois clearly can't properly fund its historical sites, which is another symptomatic failure of the functionally bankrupt state.

Or as Mini Abe would say, "Woah!"

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