Conservationist Carl Becker, R.I.P.

Carl Becker headed the Illinois Non-Game Wildlife Fund (since re-named the Wildlife Preservation Fund) from the time of its inception in the early 1980's until shortly before he retired in 2002. That was the first bill passed to allow an income tax check-off for a specific program.

He died at age 56 on April 13, according to his Chicago Tribune obituary.

Becker must have been the one who gave the Boone County Conservation District’s Roger Gustafson a rejected copy of a bill to create the fund near the deadline for introducing bills during my last term in the 1970’s (79-81).

Gustafson came up to me near the rotunda and asked me to introduce the bill. I noticed that the upper right-hand corner of the first page of the bill had been cut off.

Who was walking down the stairs at the time, but the Illinois Revenue Director Jim Zagel.

I asked the Director what he thought of the bill and he told me it looked like the bill he had just rejected. I told him I was going to introduce it. He was not happy.

I figure that newly minted state employee Becker had given it to Gustafson in the hope of doing an end-run around the Revenue Department’s opposition.

Pretty brave, I’d say.

The bill passed, but the Revenue Director had the ear of Governor Jim Thompson, who vetoed the bill. I didn’t manage to override the veto. The next session, State Rep. Virginia Macdonald got the same bill passed. Thompson signed it, along with a number of other check-off bills that were spawned in its wake. But, he gave the publicity to one to help fight child abuse.

Nevertheless, the wildlife check-off bill has survived since the beginning, always getting above the minimum collection figure of $100,000, imposed later to limit check-offs to the most popular.

There was a lot of fun on the way to the first year veto, however. To read the rest of the story, including what a golden eagle did to Governor Jim Thompson's rug, go to the bottom of this April 24th article on McHenry County Blog.