Rauner reboots state fair after nearly a year of unpaid bills from last one
Last year, the state budget standoff meant there was little distinction between state fair royalty and those who scoop poop.
The Miss Illinois County Fair Queen didn't get paid. Neither did the small army of high schoolers who muck stalls, nor the woman who spent hours sculpting butter into a life-size cow displayed in a refrigerated, rotating case inside the Dairy Building.
In all, more than 850 vendors who do everything from providing first aid and judging sheep shearing to shooting off fireworks and running the tractor pull contest found themselves with IOUs totaling roughly $1.5 million.
It wasn't until shortly before the annual event kicked off last week that those debts began to get paid, the result of a stopgap budget agreement between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly designed to keep government afloat through year's end.
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