Legislators aid Illinois FIRST jobs

SPRINGFIELD – The new state budget includes approximately $250 million for various projects in each member's district, which some local lawmakers used to fund old Illinois FIRST projects that had been promised years ago.

For instance, state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, requested $100,000 for the Rantoul Public Library and $200,000 to help the village of Potomac get a new water system. Both grants had been on hold since 2001 and have long deserved the funding they had been promised, he said.

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