In the month since Gov. George Ryan suggested a moratorium on pork-barrel spending, his administration has given a green light to $10 million more in legislators’ pet projects, including money for stained-glass art in a Naperville parking deck and decorative curbside planters for a North Side condominium association.
Taxpayer-funded grants were also dispatched to a tennis program for West Side youths, production of a video documentary on the long-defunct Elgin National Watch Co., a beef festival in Downstate Monmouth and a long-stalled theater project in the Bronzeville neighborhood linked to singer Lou Rawls.
Some of the grants came courtesy of lawmakers who have publicly condemned pork-barrel spending.
Despite slashing social-service and health-care spending, the Ryan administration has kept the pork spigot open, declining to hold up money for dozens of projects that legislators have handpicked behind closed doors.
In a deal made in 1999 to win approval of his $12 billion Illinois FIRST building program, the Republican governor allowed the leadership of the General Assembly to virtually designate how a separate pot of grant money would be spent. That pot has grown to nearly $1.5 billion, with more than $500 million of the money yet to be allocated to what legislators call member initiatives.
Ryan has the power to halt release of most legislative grant money, something he acknowledged at a Chicago news conference Thursday. However, he said he wouldn’t exercise such authority unless legislative leaders concurred, something some have been loath to do.
“Member initiatives aren’t as bad I guess as everybody points them out to be,” Ryan said. “I can stop all the member initiatives right now. The money that’s there, for the most part, couldn’t be used for anything else. It couldn’t be spent.”
To be sure, much of the pork money is restricted by law for things like brick-and-mortar projects. But at least $116 million could be redirected to pay for day-to-day state operations such as health services for the poor.
In a closed-door meeting with legislative leaders Jan. 9, Ryan suggested lawmakers freeze their pork-barrel spending to help ease the fiscal crunch. The idea drew adamant opposition, particularly from House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), several witnesses said.
Ryan may be reluctant to step in to cut off the pork because he badly needs legislative cooperation.
“He believes a deal is a deal,” said one Ryan confidant who declined to be identified. “…If he starts to break a deal, why would anyone want to negotiate with him on the next [fiscal] year’s budget?”
Indeed, several lawmakers said Thursday they thought it important for the state to keep commitments to fund their pet projects, fiscal crisis or not.
Since Ryan’s plea for a freeze was rebuffed, his administration has authorized a $375,000 grant sponsored by Madigan to install exterior lighting for nighttime baseball at the Chicago Park District’s Durkin Park.
Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan, said that although the money was only being released now, the project won authorization from the Ryan administration last March.
Another new grant, for $480,000, was secured by Rep. Lovana Jones, (D-Chicago) to underwrite a long-stalled Bronzeville theater and cultural center project, which once was to have been named after singer Lou Rawls. Money for the project was announced a year ago but not delivered until last week.
In the interim, Rawls, a Chicago native, suspended a $200,000 contribution after complaining that Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd), who conceived the project, took the soul singer’s name off the planned theater. In addition, the theater has struggled to raise money and the construction site at 47th Street and King Drive has been plagued by vandals.
An aide said Jones was traveling and not reachable for comment.
Also in the last few weeks, an arts group in Naperville collected $10,000 in grant money to help pay for a $54,000 stained-glass mural, “Cars of the Century,” already installed in a parking garage. Private donations and a local motel tax made up the difference.
The grant was secured by Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora), a harsh critic of Ryan’s spending.
Lauzen once marched in a Naperville parade in front of a firetruck festooned with banners proclaiming his opposition to the governor’s Illinois FIRST program. He also founded an anti-waste group called Illinois Porkbusters, but the group has said nothing about lawmakers’ pork grants.
Meanwhile, Lauzen has spread more than $3.7 million in grants around his district, while still insisting the state’s spending priorities were “horribly misplaced.” But, Lauzen said, the money “we have been entrusted with has all gone to good purposes.”
Two other newly released legislative grants, totaling $5,000 each, were sent to the Association of Sheridan Condominium-Cooperative owners, which represents lakefront high-rise residents from the 5200 to 6400 blocks of North Sheridan Road in Chicago.
The money was designated primarily for planters to beautify the sidewalk in front of condominium buildings along the stretch. “It not only makes it a pretty place to walk, but safer, too,” said association president Sheli A. Lulkin.
The grants were sponsored by Rep. Harry Osterman and Sen. Carol Ronen. Both Chicago Democrats could not be reached for comment.
Ronen declared last week that lawmakers should sacrifice pet projects to pay for more pressing concerns. “We have to take care of the basics before we can talk about money discretionary to legislators,” Ronen said. “Why not cut the pork?”
The Warren County Prime Beef Festival in Monmouth won $10,000 for new bleachers and livestock fences. “The commitment was made months ago, before there was any indication there was a money problem,” said Rep. Don Moffitt (R-Gilson), who sponsored the grant.
Similarly, Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin), said a new $40,000 grant for a video presentation about the long-defunct Elgin National Watch Co., keeps a commitment the state made months ago.
The grant to the Elgin Area Historical Society will cover about half the $90,000 production cost of the documentary. “The watch factory was the heart and soul of the community for about 70 years,” Rauschenberger said.
Another new grant, for $23,000, arrived at Topspin Tennis Foundation Inc. The money is aimed at teaching tennis to children on Chicago’s West Side. Records show the grant’s budget included $500 for tennis balls, $1,960 for a ball machine, $500 for T-shirts, $400 for racquets and $5,000 for court time.
“This is an appropriation that was put in long before I’m sure the governor or anyone else knew we’d have some economic shortfalls,” said grant sponsor Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood).
But, Lightford said, “if we have an opportunity at this point to stop with [member] initiatives and redirect that money to areas that are needed most, such as Medicaid, home-care workers and mental institutions, then I would support that effort.”
