https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/wasted-tax-dollars/
$365K In Taxpayer Dollars To Teach People How To Fish?
You can look at every one of these cities and see them making bad government policies that placed them in this situation.
By this name logic, public libraries and museums are also a waste of money.
[1] https://kids-fishing.com/fishing-chicago/
Edit: It's also worth considering the scale of the problem vs the cost of a program like this. The article says that the state is billions in debt, meanwhile this costs .35 million - probably less than the average house in Illinois. A debt of billions seems more structural in nature than small, possibly unwise spends like this. This is the political equivalent of boomers telling young people that they could afford a house if only they cut back on avocado toast.
How do you get power? You get the support of the political machine in your area. How do you get that support? You get the organizations that fund that machine on your side. How do you get those organizations on your side? You promise to make their investment in you pay dividends when you come into power.