Conservative Group Blasts State Lawmakers For Wasteful Spending

Add comment April 9th, 2008

The Illinois Policy Institute blasted state lawmakers Wednesday for $686 million in “pork” spending, which is money that it says could have been diverted to pay down Illinois’ growing budget deficit.

The conservative organization joined up Wednesday with the equally conservative Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-pork group in Washington, for the second edition of its, “2008 Illinois Piglet Book.” You can read the entire report here.

Using expampes such as $550,000 for the conservation of pheasants and $4 million for a Ford Technical Training Center in Chicago Heights, Greg Blankenship of the Illinois Policy Institute called the earmarks tucked into last year’s $59 billion budget unnecessary spending for lawmakers’ pet projects.

The issue of earmarks took center stage on a national level earlier this year when President Bush targeted it during his State of the Union speech. Some lawmakers argue that even though this money goes to a place or program considered a pet project, it is still a worthwhile venture.

“Our worthwhile needs are unlimited,” Blankenship said during a news conference Wednesday.

Blankenship said the state should reprioritize its spending to go toward the budget’s big ticket items such as education and health care.

“If those are a real priority, we should spend money on that first,” he said.

The report targeted projects such as Rural Medical Edcuation program at Rockford’s University of Illinois campus as wasteful spending.

Blankenship said such pork projects should be eliminated from the budget before lawmakers can raise taxes to increase state spending.