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Illinois State Fair: No Budget? No Problem!

Brian Mackey / WUIS/Illinois Issues
Preparations are underway for the opening of the Illinois State Fair, despite a lack of legal spending authority.

The Illinois State Fair will go on, even though the budget stalemate has left officials without the means to fully pay for it.

If you go by the book, state government executives aren’t supposed to spend money unless the legislature specifically authorizes it. But the standoff between the Republican governor and Democratic legislative leaders has meant there is no budget.

Nevertheless, state fair leaders say they’ll find a way to make sure the show goes on.

Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Philip Nelson said the companies that service the fair — collecting garbage, getting hay for the animals — "they understand that we don’t have a budget and payments will be delayed. But that’s part of doing business and they’ve been here for a number of years and support the fair."

Other vendors — such as the bands that play the Grandstand shows — are paid from a separate account that fair officials say doesn’t require legislative approval.

The fair is scheduled to take place August 13 to 23 in Springfield.

Brian Mackey covers Illinois state government and politics from the WUIS Statehouse bureau. He was previously A&E editor at The State Journal-Register and Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. He can be reached at (217) 206-6020.