List of state pork released

<p align="justify">Illinois' state budget for the current fiscal year is loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars in "wasteful spending," two organizations said in releasing the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book on Wednesday.

<p align="justify">"Constantly, we are told we are in a crisis," said Greg Blankenship, director of the Illinois Policy Institute, which issued the report along with Citizens Against Government Waste.

<p align="justify">Yet at the same time, state government somehow manages to find money for pork-barrel projects, Blankenship said at a State Capitol news conference. State officials should fund true priorities, such as a capital program, before they set aside money for other types of items, such as $550,000 for the conservation of pheasants, he added.

<p align="justify">The report identified $686 million in wasteful spending, singling out such expenditures as:

<p align="justify">--$1 million for the Illinois film office in Chicago.

<p align="justify">--$40,000 for the Springfield Figure Skating Club.

--$35,000 for the Prairie Aviation Museum for a display gallery in Bloomington.

--$156,000 to refurnish cabins at the Touch of Nature Environmental Center at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.