PPW Calls for $750 Million Over Five Years for Dedicated Funding for Open Space

A new report shows how far behind Illinois is in protecting open space. Partners for Parks and Wildlife is calling on the State of Illinois to commitment to at least $750 million in the capital budget to begin to address the state's needs. The report, Illinois State Land Conservation Funding, shows:

• Illinois has gone from spending an average of nearly $50 million a year on open space acquisition in the early 2000s to averaging less than $10 million annually over the last few years.

• Illinois ranks last by a wide margin among Midwestern states in acres protected per capita, with only 1 percent of its land owned by the state.

• Illinois spent $2.67 per resident on open space annually during its peak years of investment, while Ohio spent $4.36, Minnesota spent $5.76 and Wisconsin spent $9.80. Funding in Illinois has since dropped by about 80 percent.

• Illinois has lost more than 90 percent of its original wetlands, 99.99 percent of its original prairie, and currently has 424 state and 24 federally listed threatened and endangered species within its boundaries.

Partners for Parks and Wildlife is calling for new state investments to protect open space. Options outlined in the report include inclusion of open land protection in the next state capital budget and changes to the Real Estate Transfer Tax.

In addition, the state should fully fund the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development Fund (OSLAD) and the Natural Areas Acquisition Fund (NAAF), which have been consistently shortchanged over the last several years. In fiscal year 2006 alone, more than $35 million was diverted from these funds. To fully fund OSLAD and NAAF and appropriate funds from past years that weren't spent on other purposes, Illinois should provide $63 million to the two funds in fiscal year 2008.

In addition to a new capital budget, the state should commit to fully fund both OSLAD and NAAF in the future, as the law intends, providing a steady support of more than $50 million annually to open space.

Partners for Parks and Wildlife members continue to be instrumental in advocating for fully funding these important programs and protecting the integrity of dedicated open space acquisition funds.

Working together, the members of the Partners for Parks and Wildlife have protected more than $105 million over the last three years from open space funding cuts.