State’s Budget Mess Lands on Schools’ Bread Budget

A small central Illinois school district says the company that supplies bread for its lunches has declined to bid to for a new contract because of the state government's financial mess.

Superintendent Bruce Owen of the Unit 30 school district in Dieterich says Lewis Bakeries of Indiana cited the state's slow rate of providing appropriated money.

Dieterich is in Effingham County, about 70 miles south of Champaign. The two-school district has just under 500 students.

School districts and other state-dependent institutions have been waiting for months on money the state has promised but says it can't provide.

Illinois' state government is facing a $13 billion budget deficit.

Owen says no other companies bid for the contract. The district may have to buy its own bread from local bakeries.