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Exemption for Sparta World Shooting Complex signed into law


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full story at link

 

http://senategop.state.il.us/News/7995/Exemption-for-Sparta-World-Shooting-Complex-signed-into-law/news-detail/

 

...Events at the Sparta World Shooting and Recreation Complex will have new protections to allow them to continue to attract large events and vendors, due to legislation co-sponsored by State Senator Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) that was signed into law on July 12th.

 

This is the result of Southern Illinois leaders coming together and working to protect an important local economic driver from over-burdensome state rules, said Schimpf. This new law will help protect the future of the Sparta complex by ensuring that it will be able to continue to draw world-class events.

 

Senate Bill 1139 provides specific exemptions for businesses and firearms sales at WSRC events that would have been severely effected, limited, or outright banned by the Gun Dealer Licensing Act.

 

Without the exemptions, the Gun Dealer Licensing Act would have increased costs and administrative burdens for many of the vendors that typically set up during events at the World Shooting Complex in Sparta. These new regulations could have led to national shooting events choosing a different venue. Senator Schimpf voted against the Gun Dealer Licensing Act.

 

In addition, the legislation also updates concealed carry regulations and allows current and retired police officers to carry while hunting.

 

I would like to thank Governor Pritzker for recognizing the importance of the WSRC to the area and signing this legislation into law, said Schimpf....

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If an exemption is cool with JB, then why sign the original bill?

Why not just ask FFL’s to pony up say $3500.00 each year to a slush fund for these politicians and be done with it?

Then there shouldn’t be a dealer license bs law!

 

Sounds like the souther boys are gonna be just like Crook County soon, slicing out their own pie......

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I believe this is still a state owned facility, so they don't want to loose any revenue. It is a huge multi million dollar place that includes many many pistol bays, camper hook-ups, nature preserve, and shotgun areas. IDPA, USPSA, Trap, and other major events have been held there. The exemption is a good thing. The fact that any such exemption is needed however, is tyrannical.

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So every little special interest big enough to line politicians pockets is gonna get an exemption, swell.

 

 

This is exactly the precedent Springfield Armor and RRA started.

That is our system of government. Pay to play!

 

 

To paraphrase:

 

Government of the special interests by the special interests for the special interests!

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IMO no exemptions. We are a large, dis unified group of gun owners. We all need to be in the same boat. It's too easy for too many to feel "safe."

Exactly! We should put pressure on groups that use the facility to go elsewhere (out of state) since they are presumably pro-2A. Challenge them to stand with us. And wake up the FUDDs.

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Because anybody coming in from out of state has a lot more invested in the state than a dealer that has been in IL for a while!!

 

I agree. The members of the state legislature should be focused on working for the citizens of IL they represent, not to benefit interests from out of state.

 

I don't believe the Sparta complex has paid for itself, let alone become an economic boon to the area as promised.

 

While the facility may not have paid for itself yet, and that is because the state underutilizes it. Come down here during any one of the big shoots and then try to tell me that the local economy isn't benefiting.

 

Being a dealer from the area and having paid the extortion fee required by the state I find it appalling that the complex got an exemption.

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I've been to the complex several times during the Grand. I know dozens of trap shooters who attend every year and they bring most everything with them in their big RV's. It seemed to be the norm for most people less than a day's drive from the complex.

 

 

https://herald-review.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/sparta-shooting-complex-remains-budget-target/article_a00efd1e-9069-5a8a-ba8f-7c347195e7c1.html

 

The sprawling 1,600-acre complex was borne largely out of a desire by anti-gun politicians, led by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to curry favor among pro-gun voters in the southern part of the state. Of course, they didn’t need to build the largest shooting range in the nation to do that, but the quest to score points with downstate voters coincided with the opportunity to attract one of the country’s largest shooting events: the Amateur Trap Association’s Grand American.

 

The state spent more than $2 million buying a former coal strip mine and started building. By the time it was over, the estimated $30 million price tag had ballooned to $50 million.

 

What it was supposed to do was generate as much as $100 million annually in economic impact for the region, but from the start, it drew criticism as being little more than a pork project.

 

A decade later, the facility doesn’t come close to meeting those economic predictions that accompanied its construction. The trap association’s events are, by far, the biggest activities taking place at the range, with an estimated $27 million in economic impact. Other events are much smaller, often with shooters only staying around town for the day.

Operationally, it’s a money-loser as well, costing about $3 million a year, including debt service, to run. It brings in about $1.1 million a year in revenue, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Supporters, however, are quick to argue that the range isn’t all that different from a convention center, designed to boost the surrounding the economy, even as it loses money.

And for Sparta, a town with 4,300 residents, there’s a clear benefit, according to Rheinecker, the city manager.

 

 

I don't care what that biased report says. I have lived in this area my entire life and have worked in Sparta for the last 20 years. It is obvious when the big shoots are going on. Every hotel for miles is booked and restaurants are thriving. Traffic increase is obvious and easily identified with the abundance of out of state plates. Sparta is not the only town that benefits and because it cant handle the need for hotel rooms many shooters are forced to go as far as O'fallon and Fairview heights for rooms. The complex could make so much more money if they would manage the grounds correctly and bring in more events beside shoots. While many shooters camp onsite there are many who stay in hotels, B&Bs and I know of several people who rent there houses out and go on vacation during grand week. I am a shooter and have shot thousands of clays at the complex since it opened, I would rather see the state sell it or allow private management to run the place, then it could become what it should have been from the start. .

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I would rather see the state sell it or allow private management to run the place, then it could become what it should have been from the start. .

 

 

Yes, your part of the state is reaping benefits off the rest of the state's back. The complex isn't paid for and it costs IL taxpayers almost 2 million a year to keep it open.

 

I agree, the communities that benefit should buy it and pay the tax payers back.

 

Wow.... I'm sure all the tax dollars collected from the southern part of the state are actually spent there. Again, mismanagement by the state just like most other state parks. When the state shuttered the complex a few years ago a private firm offered to buy it and run it. The state refused, if its such crappy money pit why wouldn't the state sell it and be done with it?

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What county, I'm curious. It's tough to find a county the size of mine that isn't heavily wooded.

 

Grundy is a smaller one at 69th in size at 419.9 sq miles

https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/united-states/quick-facts/illinois/land-area#chart

 

27th in population with just over 50K.

 

Also, my town, the biggest in the county at just under 15K received re-certification from the USDA this winter as eligible for rural development loans and grants. So, we're rural.

Macoupin.

 

84.6% cropland

7.9% wooded

7.5% other uses

 

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