* As the Tribune reported not long ago, some of Chicago’s greatest cultural institutions are struggling now because the wealthy people who run their boards of directors botched their finances…

The turn of the millennium was a heady time for many Chicago cultural institutions. Cheap loans, high investment returns and swelling endowments spawned a slew of new attractions along the lakefront and around downtown.

The Art Institute built its Modern Wing. The Adler Planetarium expanded. The Goodman Theatre constructed a new home in the recently re-energized theater district. New exhibits sprang up at the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. The Chicago History Museum underwent a gut rehab.

Cultural institutions were joining in the economic bonanza sweeping the country and, as with for-profit companies and individual homeowners, some would pay dearly for taking financial risks.

Encouraged by boards that included some of Chicago’s most influential corporate leaders, many museums and arts organizations decided to leverage their gains by borrowing tens of millions of dollars to fund expansions, renovations and other big-ticket projects. […]

“The recession blew a lot of people’s projections and plans,” said Carroll Joynes, co-founder of the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center. “But the plans would have been unrealistic in many cases and freighted with not very good risk assessment, even if the economy had kept humming.”

* The Field Museum was especially hard hit…

The museum’s financial problems stem from a decision over a decade ago to issue $90 million in bonds for construction projects that included a subterranean storage center for much of its collection. The museum’s board assumed it could raise enough money through a capital campaign to keep the museum on solid footing.

But when that didn’t happen, it had to begin dipping into its endowment. Finally, in December, the museum announced that it would cut $5 million from its budget — $3 million of that from the science program — and would try to raise its endowment by $100 million.

* So, partly in reaction to this, the General Assembly passed a bill that would allow museums and aquariums to reduce the number of required free admission days by half, from 52 down to 26.

The bill passed with strong majorities in both chambers, but Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed it yesterday…

“Many Illinois families can only visit these museums on the 52 days that they are currently open to residents free of charge,” the governor wrote in a letter to lawmakers that explains his veto.

“Limiting the number of days our aquariums and museums are available free of cost would disproportionately limit access to our lower-income families,” he said. “I cannot support any legislation that seeks to reduce exposure to the vast educational resources on display at our museums, particularly for those in our state that are most vulnerable.”

While the problems at the museums and other cultural institutions are certainly severe, cutting free days to make up for the financing mistakes of society’s elite is just plain wrong. It is the sort of template that has been used ever since the great crash. Rich people screw up, poor people gotta give up.

The veto is vintage Pat Quinn. And he makes some solid points.

The veto has a political advantage as well. Sen. Kwame Raoul, a potential Quinn primary challenger, was a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Heh.