A press release from State Senator Pam Althoff:

End of Session Review

Rewarding Waste

Despite extensive documentation of waste and abuse, the budget continued to fund failed programs. Symbolic of this abuse was the continued funding for the “Neighborhood Recovery Initiative” which was the subject of a major Anderson Cooper 360 report on CNN and is now under examination by the state’s Auditor General.

The CNN report revealed that taxpayer dollars were used to pay people to walk in a parade with Governor Quinn, visit museums, hand out flyers promoting inner peace, and attend yoga classes.

Pat Quinn parading..

The same program handed out thousand of dollars in gift cards as a reward to two subcontractor employees of a community organization.

Despite the obvious embarrassment and abuse, the program was deemed worthy of another $20 million in taxpayer dollars.