Governor Bruce Rauner Friday released a second round of cuts that could put a big hole in one southern Illinois community's bottom line.
Potential cuts include no longer allowing gun-owners to use the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta.
Sparta city manager Corey Rheinecker says if the complex closes, it would have a major impact on the city's finances - especially every summer when the American Trapshooting Association holds its Grand American event.
"We generally get between $40,000-$50,000 in sales tax for the two weeks of the Grand. Now that the Scholastic Shoot has been building up over the years, we get quite a bit of revenue from them."
Rheinecker says not having the Grand American will not only impact Sparta and Randolph County, but the entire region.
"We have hotel reservations being booked - Sparta being the center - we go out to Mt. Vernon, Paducah, Cape Girardeau, the west side of St. Louis. So we have a pretty big radius around Sparta that impacted the area."
Rheinecker says the governor's office says operations at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex would be suspended effective September first. So, that means all events scheduled through August, including the Grand American, will not be impacted by this action.
He says the economic impact would be greater if the facility was to sit idle into the 2017 fiscal year.
