The
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, now under the umbrella of the
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, would become a standalone agency while
the remainder of IHPA would merge with the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources under Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget unveiled Wednesday.
The
proposal, which would eliminate IHPA, apparently took the agency by surprise.
“I
haven’t seen anything,” said James Bruner, chairman of the IHPA board of
trustees. “It just came out yesterday. The governor and I have not talked about
this.”
Similarly,
Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said that
the governor’s office has not briefed the speaker about merging IHPA with the
Department of Natural Resources.
In
a sense, Rauner’s proposed shakeup is a case of déjà vu all over again.
House
Speaker Michael Madigan in 2014 proposed making the ALPLM a standalone agency in
the midst of a bitter power struggle between the head of the institution and the
head of IHPA, both of whom have left state employ since Rauner became
governor. The speaker’s proposal died after IHPA officials warned that costs would increase, but the idea survived, and Gov. Rauner
after taking office in 2015 proposed making the ALPLM an independent institution
and merging IHPA with the state Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity. That proposal also died.
Prior
to the creation of IHPA in 1985, the state’s historic sites were administered
by the Illinois Department of Conservation, precursor agency to the DNR. The IHPA
oversees more than 50 historic sites. Several are in the Springfield area, including
the Dana-Thomas House, the Illinois Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln-Herndon
Law Office, Lincoln’s Tomb, the Old State Capitol, the World War II Illinois
Veterans Memorial and Lincoln’s New Salem.
According
to the governor’s proposed budget, staffing at the ALPLM would increase from 47
in fiscal year 2016 to a target of 80 in the upcoming fiscal year. According to
the proposed budget, the institution has an estimated 65 employees during the
current fiscal year. It’s not clear from the governor’s proposed budget where
additional money to pay employees would come from.
The
governor’s budget does not say why ALPLM should become an independent agency, but the proposed budget states that putting DNR in charge of historic sites would save $3.2 million.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2017.
