State budget put holiday tradition in peril
By Madison Mings
Editor
SPRINGFIELD — With Christmas on its way, the State Capital has a tradition of having lights surrounding it for the holiday season, but for some time now, Springfield’s State Capital wasn’t going to have lights up due to the state budget.
Going without a state budget since July, it is causing problems including finding money to have the lights on for Christmas.
The cost of the bill having the lights up is $7,300.
The Basic Crafts of Council for Mid-Central Illinois are the ones making payments to Springfield’s City Water, Lights and Power Co.
The council is made of three local unions: Operating Engineers’ Local 965, Laborers Local 477 and Carpenters Local 270.
The lights have been a huge tradition in Springfield and their traced back to the 1960s.
There was also a GoFundMe page started by Kristina Rasmussen, executive vice president of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute before the union workers came in with funding it. Rasmussen had raised $1,750. She said she will donate that money to a local food pantry.
The lights are now on and will remain on until Christmas.
Madison Mings can be reached at [email protected].