[snip] The Blagojevich environmental philosophy. Not only has the budget of the state’s Department of Natural Resources been cut by one-sixth in three years, the cuts appear to be more drastic in natural-areas preservation than in recreation (hunting and fishing). “Economics are involved here,” DNR director and former Democratic state legislator Joel Brunsvold told Todd Spivak of the Illinois Times (October 7-13). “It’s because recreation tends to generate money and natural areas don’t.”
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[snip] “The School Board pulled a bait and switch with funding” for Renaissance 2010, writes Veronica Anderson in Chicago Catalyst (October). “First, school officials announced that many new Renaissance 2010 schools would be housed in district facilities–an arrangement that has worked out nicely for some existing charter and contract schools. Later, officials revealed that the district would charge the new schools rent and fees for the privilege, cutting into the already modest funding they get to educate children. . . . The new funding dictum is the kind of bureaucratic thinking that has stifled innovation in regular public schools.”
[snip] While we’re at it, let’s abolish the state lottery too. Voices for Illinois Children argues against fixing the state’s budget by licensing new casinos in its “Fiscal Policy Research Brief” (October): “Revenues from Illinois casinos largely come from people who live nearby. The presence of a gaming facility within 50 miles roughly doubles the prevalence of problem and pathological gamblers in the area. . . . Allocating the responsibility for additional tax revenues to those who live near a casino and suffer from an addiction is a very unfair way for the state to raise the money needed to serve us all.” It would be better, VIC says, to cut local property taxes, raise state income taxes, and broaden the sales tax so that it applies to services.
