In a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, it is reported that Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for a $1.3 million-dollar migrant tent encampment. However, the site was never built.
In December 2023, Governor JB Pritzker made the highly publicized decision to halt construction of the shelter encampment in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood due to environmental concerns. That statement caused the project to be scrapped. Shortly after, the Governor assured the public that the project’s state contractor, Garda World Federal Services, would absorb the costs of the work that it had already put into constructing the camp.
Despite those assurances from the Governor that state taxpayers would not end up footing the bill for something that was never built, $1.3 million in funding was snuck into the recently approved $55 billion state spending plan that is currently waiting for the Governor’s signature.
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie has been vocal about her opposition to migrant spending, and Illinois sanctuary state policies that have escalated it:
“It’s clear taxpayers are still on the hook for the migrant crisis of the Democrat majority’s making,” Illinois House Republican Leader Tony McCombie of Savanna said in a recent statement. “This is just one of the many repercussions taxpayers will face for continued agency mismanagement under the Pritzker administration.”
Read more in the Chicago Tribune’s latest story: Illinois agrees to pay $1.3M for never-built migrant encampment.