On two 7-2 votes, members of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recommended the two facilities, as well as satellite operations of the museum in Whittington, Lewistown, Chicago and Lockport, stay open.
Three Republicans on the panel bucked the Republican governor's plan to shutter the facilities.
The advisory vote came a day after the Illinois Senate passed a measure requiring the state to keep the museum sites open.
Rauner proposed closing the sites in July as part of the ongoing budget impasse, triggering a review process by the legislative commission because each facility employs a large number of state workers.
Source: herald-review.com/news.
[Note: The museum facility in Lewistown is Dickson Mounds. Both the main museum in the state capitol and Dickson house extensive archaological collections which are still being used for research. Governor Rauner's proposal to close the museums, effectively mothballing these collections and stopping research, comes after a state budget impasse with the legislature.]
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