Our crisis in a nutshell
Monday, Oct 26, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* McKinney…
To see the fickle fiscal state of affairs in cash-strapped Illinois, you need look no further than how the musical acts Styx, Sammy Hagar and Hank Williams Jr got paid for performing at the state fair in August, but the woman who sculpted the event’s life-sized butter cow did not. […]
A provision in state law, for example, allows grandstand acts to be paid up-front, enabling Rauner’s administration to authorize more than $2 million in expedited payments to 20 performers, state records show.
But Sharon BuMann, the New York butter sculptor who for 14 years has carved a cow from a large block of butter at the state’s fair is considered a vendor, and that status sent her invoice into an unpaid pile that has reached $7 billion. […]
Numerous social service agencies that depend on state funding say they are facing shutdowns if the budget impasse is not resolved. The Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service, a rape counseling agency in the campus town of Charleston, expects to close in three weeks without a budget deal freeing up about $240,000 in expected state funding, the agency told Reuters. Erin Walters, the group’s executive director, wondered aloud about priorities that determined musicians would be paid while her organization is left to contemplate closing for the first time since its 1977 founding. […]
Charlie Brusco, manager for the 1970s rock band Styx, said the group collected its $75,000 payment before the bus carrying lead singers James “JY” Young and Tommy Shaw and their band left the state fairgrounds.
“We always leave the venue with our money,” Brusco said.
Ugh.
And, by the way, in what bizarro world is Styx even worth $75,000?
- VanillaMan - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:46 am:
in what bizarro world is Styx even worth $75,000?
It is the one that froze into place back in 1982.
- Dome Gnome - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:50 am:
Cough up the butter, but don’t expect the cheddar.
- phocion - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:50 am:
It’s a Grand Illusion.
- too obvious - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:50 am:
75 grand to leave maybe and not come back.
- Same as it ever was - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:50 am:
This does sum it up in a nutshell. Years ago, someone put in place laws to ensure the big, connected guys get paid while the little guys wait.
Meanwhile, the show must go on. Welcome to Illinois. Same as it ever was.
- Dilemma - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:50 am:
Styx. (stĭks) n. Greek Mythology. The river across which the souls of the dead are ferried, one of the five rivers in Hades.
Seems like an appropriate band to have this year.
- nixit71 - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:50 am:
==in what bizarro world is Styx even worth $75,000?==
New York State Fair, 2013:
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/10/nys_fair_contracts_grandstand.html
- Checkers - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:51 am:
Even that much butter isn’t enough to grease the skids
- OneMan - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:52 am:
Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto
- lake county democrat - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:52 am:
Why must you be such an angry young man?
- Joe cannon - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:52 am:
And I wonder what the charleston area legs slates have tbeen say? Sen. Righter?
- OneMan - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:54 am:
== ==in what bizarro world is Styx even worth $75,000?==
New York State Fair, 2013:
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/10/nys_fair_contracts_grandstand.html ==
When Styx gets 2x George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic we have all failed…
- Downstate - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:54 am:
Rich,
This story perfectly sums up the challenges facing “business” in Illinois. Commentator, Same as it….., hit on it as well.
Small companies continue to feel the brunt of the rules and regulators out of Springfield, while Big business is able to cut a deal with the various power brokers.
- Angry Chicagoan - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:55 am:
“in what bizarro world is Styx even worth 75K?” A would in which aging Boomers from Winnetka in the Styx core demographic are deemed to look “authentic” in Carhartts.
- Wordslinger - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 10:58 am:
For that kind of cash, the state should have required Styx to man the rape crisis hotline in Charleston.
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:02 am:
Come on, they are super stars. Super stars deserve good money.
- Mouthy - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:05 am:
Do you ever wonder why somebody finds this stuff by accident. If the butter cow sculpturer wasn’t making a beef then nobody would have looked at the grandstand acts and their payment. Maybe somebody will actually take the time to find and read the contracts along with any riders and really have a great story…
- Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:05 am:
Rich, if you missed it, we’re living in Bizarro Illinois, the State where everything is just the opposite of what it should be.
- Poolguy - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:07 am:
And we try, best that we can, to carry on….
- Dudeman - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:07 am:
I’m sure the money collected for the tickets covered Styx. They sold 9,000+ tickets to middle aged rocking fans. It was a wicked awesome concert.
Feel sorry for the butter cow lady. Did she get to keep the left over butter though?
- Secret Square - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:09 am:
“aging Boomers… in the Styx core demographic”
Hey, I resemble that remark… my best (female) friend in 7th and 8th grade was a HUGE Styx fan, and now she’s a grandmother (!)
- Team Sleep - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:10 am:
Mouthy - was that an intentional pun?! The lady who sculpted the butter cow has a beef with the state. HA!
- Team Sleep - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:12 am:
$75,000 is not what I consider to be outrageous. After what the State Fair paid out to Robin Thicke and Fergie in past years, $75,000 looks like a steal of a deal.
- Norseman - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:13 am:
More of these stories folks. Let the public know the Rauner priority - serve the big guy and stick it to the little guy.
- Century Club - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:14 am:
Wordslinger +1
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:17 am:
They could’ve got REO Speedwagon for half of that.
- Jake From Elwood - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:17 am:
The butter cow lady should have used this product:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=%2bstyx+of+butter&id=2D95DABD421D50F4F754D78212E6F6EFAE1F9F3C&FORM=IQFRBA
- LizPhairTax - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:22 am:
Can’t talk Styx down from $75k but going to get MJM and JJC to bend to your will?
Enjoy your English muffin horseshoes, Governor.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:24 am:
Your last question was certainly the most appropriate. $75,000 for STYX? Good grief, who’s taste was that.
- Thinking - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:25 am:
The State Fair Act [20 ILCS 210/10] provides for all revenue and use of Illinois State Fair at Springfield to be deposited in Illinois State Fair Fund and for DuQuoin into the Agricultural Premium Fund. “All funds in the Illinois State Fair Fund shall be used by the Department of Agriculture in accordance with appropriation by the General Assembly for operation of the Illinois State Fair.”
Subject to appropriation. So how do they pay grandstand acts when no approp? Please ask them what the special law is they keep saying they have given the language of the State Fair Act.
I also have to call BS on them when they say they made money on the grandstand. They covered cost of artists, but add in cost of lighting, sound, stagehands, food for artists, etc and it’s a losing proposition.
- Mama - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:26 am:
It looks like there will be no more butter cows at the IL State Fair. Did the State Fair winners of the best cow, pig or fowl get their money?
- AC - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:26 am:
The longer the governor continues to spin on the turnaround agenda, rather than the budget, with all the prog rock pretentiousness of a rotating keyboard, the more I wish he’d just sail away.
- truthteller - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:33 am:
And, by the way, in what bizarro world is Styx even worth $75,000?
If Rauner is worth the $1 we are paying him, Styx is worth the $75k
- Same as it ever was - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:34 am:
“serve the big guy and stick it to the little guy” sounds like the Illinois priority. For decades now.
- Allen D - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:36 am:
just for the record, STIX is an awesome band, there is no need to take out your frustration on them….
- JS Mill - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:47 am:
The Governor loves him some “Renegade”!
- lake county democrat - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:48 am:
For $75,000 you’d like to get the complete band - don’t think they ever reconciled with Dennis DeYoung.
- lake county democrat - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 11:51 am:
He’s got to be a blue collar man: https://capitolfax.com/wp-content/headshot3.JPG
- Cheswick - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 12:08 pm:
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends…
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 12:14 pm:
===And, by the way, in what bizarro world is Styx even worth $75,000?===
When inflation reaches 1,000% and a hotdog costs $100,000.
- Cubs in '16 - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 12:21 pm:
Styx had to stop several times while performing ‘The Best of Times’ due to uncontrollable laughter.
- Stating The Obvious - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 12:25 pm:
Styx without Dennis DeYoung is arguably worth $75,000. With him, not one red cent.
- Jerry Callo - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
$75,000 … that Stynx!
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 1:13 pm:
McKinney, no shock, does great work here.
To the Post,
No budget, and spending done by statue, court order, or mandate make those needing real government services… expendable.
If your excuse (Gov. Rauner and or Crew) is that by statute, court order or mandate has put Styx in front of things people need, why govern under your own tied hands approach?
Choices were made. Choices are being ignored. Choices can change the equation.
But, y’all need to choose to make these choices.
Styx doesn’t care, but those hurting do.
- After Further Review - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 1:19 pm:
It pains me that Illinois is always outclassed by the Wisconsin State Fair. In Northern Illinois there are large numbers of people who bypass the Illinois State Fairs (Springfield and Du Quoin)and trek up to West Allis.
- cover - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 3:27 pm:
With the various Styx lyrics (and one from ELP for some reason…) listed, no one picked up on the obvious!
Background music on a constant loop on 2M:
You and i,
we will fly so high,
we’ll be Superstars!
- cover - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 3:29 pm:
BTW, have any reporters or advocacy groups thought to ask JY or Tommy Shaw for a donation to any of these social service agencies?
- crazybleedingheart - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 3:40 pm:
“Medalists for prize-winning pigs, cows and quilts haven’t received their prize money either, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture said.”
OH, WOW.
Man, this is ripe for a skewering bigger than the Daily Show lottery bit.
How about a long feature from John Oliver (OR A SHORT ONE FROM SOMEONE IN THE IL MEDIA) showing press clips of Rauner standing with those kids in FFA jackets he hid behind to avoid answering budget questions.
Cut to jacket-wearing FFA kid:
“I always knew Wilbur was SOME PIG, just like the spider said. I was so proud to bring him to the Fair and that he won the prize. I’ll admit I teared up a little when they loaded him up for slaughter, but I’m proud of my work as an IL pork producer and I was so excited to be using the $4,622 I got for Wilbur to head off to my Animal Industry major at ISU just a week later.
What’s going on? Now I have no pig, no cash, and my school’s saying it’s going broke, too.
All I have is this photo with some guy who doesn’t even know how to take a proper selfie, and the ISU Bookstore isn’t accepting that as an IOU.
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/pantagraph.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/98/49845fee-d25a-576c-8084-38bea3806ba5/55e77bb4dbeac.image.jpg?resize=300%2C396
- Striketoo - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 4:10 pm:
And not one person questions spending taxpayers money on a butter cow.
- Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 4:30 pm:
Correction:
The butter cow is not carved from a “large block of butter.”
There’s a chickenwire frame under there. The butter is sculpted on to then make the cow.
The butter is scraped off into buckets at the end of the fair and reused the next year.
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Oct 26, 15 @ 8:11 pm:
Hey, now. The State “made” $38,000 in profit off the Grandstand shows this year. Word, you want ROI? There’s ROI, a huge uh, uh, 1.5%! Wouldn’t even cover the fees in a PE deal.
Another great read from McKinney.