SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.- A group of the 13 biggest museums in Chicago have gotten together to ask for $400 million over the next ten years. The Illinois Museum Capital Initiative has been in the form of a petition to every state representative and senator. It was signed by the presidents of these 13 museums. The museum officials met yesterday in Springfield. The proposal would require that each institution raise $2 for every $1 in state money. That leverages the program's worth to $1.2 billion over the next decade. Lonnie Bunch, president of the Chicago Historical Society and one of the participating museums, stated, "We are talking about fixing up infrastructure problems at our aging institutions. And those kinds of problems, like sewer replacements in zoos, aren't very pretty. As an institution, these are issues you can't ignore for very long. But it's hard to find donors who want to fund this kind of work, no matter how crucial it is. It's hard to put a donor name on a sewer."