While the controversial state grant for Pilgrim Baptist Church may have been canceled, Illinois' capital budget, including more than $30 million in earmarks for religious organizations, remains on track.
The projects are not part of the state's annual spending plan, which is facing a huge deficit, and money has not yet been distributed. But the decisions over how to spend millions of dollars raise questions of priorities when the state government is struggling to fund college aid and pay bills for health care programs.
There is little oversight surrounding individual lawmakers' favorite projects, which are popular back home and integral to legislative deal-making in Springfield.
In addition to being responsible for whether the money is spent appropriately, bureaucrats in state agencies are also left with the job of determining whether church-state guidelines are followed, according to the Illinois attorney general's office.
