Illinois spent millions on stalled and canceled university construction projects Grants for higher learning projects were canceled or stalled due to lack of funds - Peter Matuszak, Chicago Tribune

Eight years after Illinois approved a massive capital plan for university campuses in the state, half of the largest new projects at state schools never began construction and are now canceled or indefinitely halted. In all, the state put more than $14 million toward five major higher education projects that were approved but never made it out of the planning phase, according to a review of the state's capital budget by the Tribune. Those facilities — slated for Western Illinois University, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago — were approved in 2009 but never received full funding to begin construction. A spokesman for Gov. Bruce Rauner told the Tribune that the bond funds intended to pay for the projects have run out and that the legislature did not include those items among expenditures approved in the new state budget. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-public-university-construction-crisis-20170902-story.html