Illinois tax payers are on the hook for the relocation of prairie chickens and Durbin wants more money for the Obama library.
Via Watchdog
Cash-strapped state government has found a new use for its fleet of aircraft – flying birds into Illinois.
I kid you not.
State aircraft are flying to Kansas and transporting prairie chickens back to the Land of Lincoln.
And at a time state lawmakers are looking at raising the state income tax, Illinois state employees have been hiking across Kansas trapping these chickens.
Talk about fowl fiscal deeds.
State pilots have flown between Illinois and Kansas not once, not twice but 14 times this year taking prairie chickens to downstate Jasper and Marion counties.
“Illinois is the Prairie State and prairie chickens are an endangered species here, so we thought it would be a good idea to bring them back,” said Scott Simpson, site manager for Prairie Ridge State Natural Area in Newton, Ill.
The feds are chipping in $337,000 toward the program and the state will pay $117,000. Some of the cost to state government may be offset by private fundraising done by the Audubon Society, Simpson said.
That puts the total cost of the program at $455,000 for the next three years.
That’s hardly chicken scratch.
At a time when both our federal and state government are running massive deficits, is this really the best use of taxpayer money?
So far this year, the state has relocated 50 cocks and 41 hens. That puts the cost of the program at $1,166 per bird.