Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Meet the winners and losers of latest legislative session.

Article Excerpt
Byline: John Patterson Daily Herald State Government Editor

SPRINGFIELD - Jan Bradley learned Feb. 18 that Gov. Rod Blagojevich planned to eliminate her job and those of the more than 300 other employees at the St. Charles Youth Center in a sweeping set of budget cuts.

But over the ensuing six months, the St. Charles employees watched the state's political theater slowly do an about face. The final budget deal approved earlier this month keeps the youth prison open.

"It's really been an emotional roller coaster," said Bradley, the head of the local employees' union.

But the employees at these prisons are by no means the only winners emerging from the General Assembly's protracted spring session that began in January and didn't end until last week. Suburban schools, coaches and even pets were among interests that benefited from the session.

The session created losers, too. Bradley's joy at the youth center staying open, for example, is tempered by a 4 percent budget cut that hit the state's prison agency and nearly all others that will eliminate jobs.

Other losers...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!