The State Un-Fair Questions and Answers
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson The Institute recently released “Spotlight on Spending #9: The State Un-Fair” reviewing the Illinois and DuQuoin State Fairs between fiscal year 2001 and fiscal year 2009. There has been some confusion about the paper, and we’d like to take a blog post to help clarify some of these questions. 1. “If you can...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson
The Institute recently released “Spotlight on Spending #9: The State Un-Fair” reviewing the Illinois and DuQuoin State Fairs between fiscal year 2001 and fiscal year 2009. There has been some confusion about the paper, and we’d like to take a blog post to help clarify some of these questions.
1. “If you can show me the law that requires the State Fairs to make a profit, I’ll buy you a corndog!”Legislation is not always as clear as the public would like, and it is often up to interpretation. If you search through the State Fair Act, you won’t find the phrase “break even.” Instead you’ll find phrases like “All revenues from the operations and use of any facilities of the Illinois State Fair at Springfield and the Springfield State Fairgrounds shall be deposited in the Illinois State Fair Fund,” and that “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 the operation of the Illinois State Fair.” What is helpful here is to know why the legislature passed this legislation; in other words, what the intent of the legislation is. In the “Compliance Audit and Supplementary Financial Information For The Two Years Ended September 30, 1995” from the Illinois Auditor General, there is a glimpse of the intent of the State Fair Act:
“Beginning with the 1995 Fair, it was the intent of the legislature and Department management that the Fair become self-sufficient. Effective July 1, 1994, all Fair related revenues were deposited in the Illinois State Fair Fund. The revenue received during the 1994 Fair was to be used to fund the expenses of the 1995 Fair. Due to the initial start up year and budgetary timing differences between the State and Fair fiscal years, the Fair received additional General Revenue Fund appropriations to defray costs of the 1995 Fair. The Comparative Statement of Revenues and Expenditures emphasizes current Fair revenues compared to current Fair expenditures. In future years, current year expenditures will be limited to revenues collected and deposited during the previous Fair.”
Although the statute may not clearly state that the Illinois State Fair should be break even, this audit illustrates that the intent of the legislation at the time it was created was for the Illinois State Fair to be self-sustaining and for “expenditures [to be] limited to revenues collected and deposited during the previous Fair.” The Institute encourages the legislature and the Department of Agriculture to return to the original intent of the legislation as described by the 1995 audit.
2. “Where’d you get those numbers?” All the numbers featured in the table of the paper came from audits of the Illinois State Fair and the DuQuoin State Fair by the Illinois Auditor General, which are available online. The audits for the Illinois State Fair are available here, and the audits for the DuQuoin State Fair are available here.
3. “Do you want to end the State Fair?” Some people have interpreted this report to mean that the Institute is in favor of closing the State Fairs or expects them to earn a profit, but neither of those statements is correct. We ask for the State Fairs to be self-sufficient rather than losing money year after year. By breaking even, we hope that this will insulate the State Fair from budget pressures so it will notbe cancelled, which has happened to Michigan’s State Fair.