* The guy sure has chutzpah…
Applause filled the lobby of the Illinois State Museum Thursday evening as state and local officials celebrated the reopening of the Springfield facility after a nine-month closure.
The museum at 502 S. Spring St. opens to the public at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, but Gov. Bruce Rauner, Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder and other state officials gathered early to thank members of the Illinois State Museum Society, museum employees and Department of Natural Resources employees for their ongoing support. The gathering was held within hours of the legislature approving a six-month, stopgap budget.
“We in Illinois have been coming through difficult times, difficult days, as we struggle to get our state back on solid financial footing, to live within our means, restore value to taxpayers and grow our economy,” said Rauner. “These have been difficult days. Many of you have worked hard and sacrificed to protect this institution through this difficult time.”
The Republican governor announced he would close the museum and its satellite facilities to the public in late September as an attempt to save money during the state’s budget standoff. The museum’s primary Springfield site lost approximately half of its staff over the course of its closure and required the approval of a $5 admission fee to reopen. The admission fee does not apply to children age 18 and under, seniors and veterans.
I never quite understood what money the closing was actually supposed to save since unionized employees kept reporting to work.
But, they did manage to run off half the staff, including at least two-thirds of the museum’s management.
- illinoised - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:02 pm:
He also ran off 30% of the staff where I work.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:04 pm:
This hubris speaks to a person consumed with themselves and not the damaging decisions they cause, or the alleged “hero” status after reopening a damaged and hobbled hostage.
It’s a sad commentary on the man Bruce Rauner
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:06 pm:
Chutzpah is right.
Governor Wrecking Ball strikes again.
I wish the general public understood the amount of damage he did to the museum. It will take years before donors, the scientific community and others trust the institution again.
- Dome Gnome - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:06 pm:
“I am the problem!”
“I am the solution!”
- A guy - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:06 pm:
This doesn’t add up too much for me either.
On the bright side, think of the parents who paid college tuition for a student snagging one of the many, many history degrees awarded each year.
Every 50 years or so, having a job opening in that discipline is a welcome sight!
(joshing!!)
- GBush43 - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:07 pm:
#missionaccomplished
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:08 pm:
===On the bright side, think of the parents who paid college tuition for a student snagging one of the many, many history degrees awarded each year.===
The “Office Space” model of laying off those not wanted around?
“We fixed… the glitch!”
Nothing funny here
- Honeybear - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:09 pm:
Perfidious Rauner inspects the new plantation….er museum. Now that he’s moved it from collectivist unprofitability to profitability by reducing staff and increasing fees, Lord Rauner is pleased.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:10 pm:
Evidently WICS did not archive the live event on their website. Rauner was positively gleeful last night. Much in contrast to the dourness he displayed at the presser in the Capitol prior to the museum event. He couldn’t stop grinnin’ and lungin’ toward the microphone.
One word on his handling of the Museum Complex sites- HYPOCRISY!
On another note- Dickson Mounds reopens next week. I don’t think there is an entrance fee planned there.
- Concerned - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:12 pm:
A key feature of his pension cost reduction plan IS to run off as many Tier 1 employees as possible. No more pension accrual for those who depart. Replacements come in as Tier 2 employees.
So the loss of two-thirds of management is a feature, not a bug, of the closing.
- kimocat - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:12 pm:
What a parade of the most incredible lack of self-awareness! Does he really not know he stood there looking like the proverbial Prince of Hypocrisy?
- Artifact - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:24 pm:
P.S. There is only one museum manager left, the one who was selected as the Acting Museum Director. The rest are gone. The only reason the other staff remained is because of an AFSCME lawsuit. Ruiner had planned to get rid of all but 3 staff(the Acting Director and two others to keep the collections safe).
- John Herath - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:25 pm:
The ISM (mostly through the Museum Society) has a number of grants and contracts to do research, curation and storage work for other entities. One of the largest is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It would be interesting to see how much of that grant and contract money was lost and compare that to any GRF “savings.”
- Artifact - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:42 pm:
John Herath you are correct. And the Springfield-based anthropology curators involved with those ACOE contracts have retired. The curators who landed the big NSF grants are gone too. The indirect from those huge grants helped keep the ship afloat. Before this started last summer, the Museum Society contributed almost 1/2 of the Museum’s budget via grants, contracts, donations, etc. This is never talked about.
- Annonin' - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:49 pm:
And it is being credited with a lot of confusion and some lost biz at the presidential museum cause to some a closed museum is a closed museum
Great job BigBrain.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:50 pm:
It should have never been closed to begin with. The assertion that it was for budget reasons was laughable. Closing it saved nothing. It probably cost money. This was politics at its worst.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:55 pm:
Chutzpah, maybe. But I wonder if he sincerely believes he did a good thing there. If so, then he’s blind to the collateral damage the impasse caused.
- Anotherretiree - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:59 pm:
‘We had to destroy the village on order to save it”
- VanillaMan - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:02 pm:
It’s how this man got rich.
Take it over.
Shut it down.
Drive away the professionals.
Lose any accreditations.
Scare survivors into obedience.
Pocket the budget.
Reopen claiming operation was reformed.
See if it stays successful.
Sell to senior citizen as computer parts, if it goes belly up.
Or let it file bankruptcy.
The Museum needs to have a new display about the governor who killed Illinois history for political reasons. Everyone should learn what happens when bad governors are in power.
- A guy - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:09 pm:
===Everyone should learn what happens when bad governors are in power.===
Yikes Nilla, can you imagine what it would cost this state to build a wing that accomplished that.
- cdog - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:11 pm:
Put to rest what you thought of me
While I clean this slate with the hands of uncertainty.
So let mercy come and wash away what I’ve done.
(Linkin Park, What I’ve done)
ya, I don’t know. It’s back to the Lizzie Border defense, “I killed my parents and now I am an orphan. Please have mercy on me.”
(Mercy trumps judgement, but geepers, I feel like this guy is abusing the system of mercy/grace.)
- Keyrock - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:19 pm:
Banned words. More banned words.
I hope the governor turns up at holiday parades, where he can get booed.
- LizPhairTax - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
Hope he paid his $5
- Anon - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:37 pm:
To hurt libs who like education?
- G'Kar - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
What do they need professional staff for anyway? It is just a bunch of old stuff on display. Just keep a janitor or two around to dust things once a week and the museum will be just fine./s
- kimocat - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
Yeah, I know what you’re saying a guy. However, I was there during the Ryan years and while he was guilty of some political chicanery, he did NOT destroy state government. I’m not sure at this point that Illinois will completely recover from the dumpster fire that is the Rauner Administration.
- Bigtwich - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 3:07 pm:
And the lovely gift shop is gone. Not just the merchandise, cleared out. Sigh.
- South Central - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 3:16 pm:
“À hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation. Adlai Stevenson.
Yep.