Unfortunately, Illinois took two steps back in the transparency movement last week during veto session. The first occurred in a move to deny Illinois citizens the right to ask for government employee performance evaluations through a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request. Story on that here. The second occurred when the Senate failed to override Gov. [...]
Tag Archives: Illinois State Spending
Work on Industrial Arts Glass Studio Costs Illinois Taxpayers $71,000
According to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Grant Tracker website, the Little Black Pearl Workshop received a $71,000 grant to help complete the industrial arts glass studio, located at 1060 East 47th Street in Chicago. Specifically the funds were to be “used to complete the installation of a hood and exhaust system in [...]
Illinois to Spend $150k to Upgrade Lighting
The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity recently awarded a grant to the city of Chicago to help “with upgrading the lighting in the 34th Ward of Chicago, specifically on 115th Street from Vincennes Avenue to Lowe Avenue.” The award amount is $150,000 for the project. According to the DCEO website (search City of Chicago, [...]
Sunshine Standard
All interested in government transparency, check out this new site, sunshinestandard.org, created by Sunshine Review. The website aims to provide citizens and elected officials with model legislation and tools to launch reforms and expand the amount of information available about government. As Michael Barnhart of Sunshine Review explains, “State and local governments, and school districts, [...]
Grant for Costumed Actors Costs Taxpayers $79K
In 2009, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity awarded a $79,000 to the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition (search “Looking for Lincoln” – Grant #09337008). The Grant was awarded to “cover costs associated with hosting a Living History Program” that would include “costumed interpreters” to lead daily tours of historical locations around Springfield. According [...]
Taxpayers Paying for New Model of Chicago
In 2008, the Chicago Architecture Foundation was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to “assist in the development of the 2008-2009 Special Exhibitions.” According to the DCEO Grant Tracker (Under “Search Grants by Organization” search Chicago Architecture Foundation, Grant #09-335008), the Special Exhibitions will feature a “state-of-the-art scale model [...]
State Spends $100k on New Art Exhibit
In 2009, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity awarded a $100,000 Tourism Attraction Grant to the Art Institute of Chicago for the Becoming Edvard Munch Exhibit (under “Search Grants by Organization” search Art Institute of Chicago). According to the project description on the DCEO Grant Tracker, the “funds will be used to assist in [...]