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House committee hears push for capital spending

Posted October 18, 2007 11:00 pm

Adriana Colindres

State government needs to approve a new capital spending plan to ensure safe conditions on Illinois roads and bridges and to put more people to work, lawmakers were told Thursday.

The message came from various officials, including mayors, union representatives and past and present heads of the Illinois Department of Transportation. All of them attended a state Capitol hearing of the House appropriations committee on public safety.

The hearing was scheduled to discuss capital spending for fiscal 2008, which began July 1.

But the discussion failed to address a key question: how to pay for any capital program that the General Assembly and Gov. Rod Blagojevich might eventually negotiate.

Committee chairwoman Karen Yarbrough, a Democratic state representative from Maywood, made it clear right off the bat that Thursday's hearing wouldn't delve into revenue matters, including a possible expansion of Illinois' gambling industry.

Still, the people who testified had plenty to say.

IDOT Secretary Milton Sees noted that Illinois has not passed a capital plan in eight years, and the state's roads and bridges continue to age. For instance, he said, 75 percent of state highways are more than 40 years old, and more than 700 bridges are rated in "poor" condition.

In the wake of a deadly bridge collapse in Minnesota in August, IDOT is revising its multi-year plan to focus attention on bridges, Sees said. Unfortunately, he added, that means putting off various roadway improvements.

The "Illinois Works" capital program favored by the governor would result in about $15.6 billion in federal, state and local funding for roads and bridges, Sees said.

"It is exceedingly important to the economy of the state of Illinois that we continue to invest in our infrastructure," he said.

The Senate in September approved the capital program, which also calls for school construction and other types of projects. The House has yet to vote on the measure. The House and Senate are not in Springfield this week, and they have set no return date.

State government's piece of "Illinois Works" would cost $13 billion, but when combined with federal and state funding, the entire initiative would carry an estimated price tag of $25 billion.

Kirk Brown, who headed the transportation department during the administrations of Republican Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan, told committee members that IDOT does its best to keep roads and bridges in good shape, but there simply isn't enough money.

"We've lost a lot of ground in the last five years," said Brown, who now is with the Transportation for Illinois Coalition, a business and labor group that favors increased transportation spending.

Brown said his group's funding recommendations are higher than what is called for in "Illinois Works."

Others who testified at the hearing included:

-- Dick Rawlings, chairman of Corridor 67 Inc. He said expanding U.S. 67 into a four-lane expressway is crucial for west-central Illinois' economic development and quality of life.

-- Steven Sipes, mayor of Pana. He said expanding U.S. 51 to Centralia could be "the only way" for Pana to recover from economic and population declines.

-- Sean Stott, director of governmental affairs for the Midwest regional office of Laborers' International Union of North America. He said the lack of a capital program has caused more widespread unemployment among thousands of laborers.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.

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