OTB grant program for parks, museums zeroed out

SPRINGFIELD – A program that provides more than $40,000 a year to both the Urbana Park District and the Vermilion County Conservation District was among this week's budget casualties.

The Illinois Horse Racing Act requires that some of the state's income from off-track betting parlor taxes gets distributed back to museums and park or conservation districts in dozens of communities where OTB facilities are located. But Gov. Rod Blagojevich used his amendatory veto power to cut the entire $3 million the new state budget had set aside for those grants.

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