Budget cuts prompt a dozen Illinois historic sites to pare schedules

[L Verge]

The problem of not filling staff vacancies when they occur is quite prevalent in the museum field, unfortunately. It is used as a cost-cutting technique when dealing with stagnant budgets; but in the long-run, it only serves to lessen income-generating services to the public and put greater stress on employees that stay.

When the visitation goes down, the chief bean-counters continue to cut the budget, thinking that the museum is no longer popular. It's amazing how much of the history money that the higher-ups supposedly don't have makes its way to other divisions within city, county, and state governments.

From the article that Gene posted, it appears that this situation is made worse by an unpopular administration at the museum. The facility opened with such high hopes and hype. When did it start to falter?