While in Springfield in May, I drifted over to the Statehouse to check in with various lawmakers to see if anything good might happen for the Old Slave House. Surprisingly, at that point there was a hint at good news.

Local state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Norris City, had been talking with the governor and his staff about the house and some type of appropriation this year. He wouldn’t confirm anything, but he was supposed to meet with the governor later that afternoon.

Despite his efforts and the governor's promises, nothing ever surfaced in any of the budget bills that showed anything for the Old Slave House. At least he tried, which is more than some can say.

Assistant House Majority Leader Lou Jones, D-Chicago, one of the members of the Legislative Black Caucus who visited the house back in 1997 on a trip organized by Brandon’s uncle, then-state Rep. David Phelps, also told me she would use her own influence with House Speaker Michael Madigan to try to get some funding if the governor didn’t come through.

The problem has been for a number of years now that Illinois faces a major structural budget deficit, which isn’t supposed to happen in a state that requires a balanced budget. That’s just one of the reasons why Open it NOW! has been urging a public-private partnership be developed where the state turns over the operations of the Old Slave House to a regional non-profit group.

For the first time Jones and state Sen. Donne E. Trotter, D-Chicago, chairman of one of the Senate’s appropriation committees as well as chairman of the Black Caucus, seemed to agree that the site had the track record of self-sufficiency that could justify such a partnership.