* As I told you yesterday afternoon, the House advanced a $1.8 billion “capital plan” out of the Executive Committee yesterday. At first, they claimed the proposal would generate about $5 billion, but they were apparently confused. The Dems defended the proposal…
The House Democrats are trying to send a signal to the feds that Illinois has the money ready to go to fund the projects most at-risk of losing the federal funds, said Rep. Gary Hannig, a Litchfield Democrat sponsoring the measure [emphasis added]. “This would allow us to make our 20 percent payment. In turn, we would expect the federal government to then come up with the 80 percent. But these are projects that our congressmen have determined and earmarked in a federal transportation bill.”
Steve Brown, Democratic spokesman, said the measure aims to bring in $1.2 billion for highway projects and $600 million for mass transit projects. He said House Democrats proposed those amounts in response to information from the Illinois Department of Transportation about the federal dollar amounts at risk without a state match. But IDOT couldn’t confirm that information or interpretation of the situation. Department spokesman Mike Claffey said IDOT didn’t have a comment but was looking into the legislation.
And as Hannig said, no one really knows when the federal earmarks will expire. “I think the view is that the sooner we try to access this money, the better, clearly.”
* The House Republicans on the committee all voted for the proposal yesterday, but the governor’s office pounced…
“This is designed to make sure Illinois doesn’t lose any federal funds,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). […]
“This House action puts us 1 percent closer to meeting our state’s infrastructure needs,” gubernatorial spokesman Lucio Guerrero said. “Before they start pounding their chests to congratulate themselves, it’s our hope they intend to go back to work and pass the other 99 percent necessary to meet our state’s infrastructure needs.”
* And the Senate Dems were skeptical…
But even if the House approves the plan, the Senate does not intend to meet again until after the Nov. 4 general election.
The Senate, led by Blagojevich allies, previously approved the governor’s $34 billion capital construction plan. The House, led by Blagojevich adversaries, defeated that plan on May 31.
Lawmakers last approved a major capital plan in 1999.
“We feel our work is completed,” said Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago.
* Erickson has the final word…
But, given the political gridlock that has enveloped Springfield for the past year, it’s too early to begin revving up the bulldozers.
* Meanwhile, take this with a grain of salt…
Tensions between Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan are still simmering in Springfield. Upstate, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he tried to play peacemaker - but got shot down. […]
DALEY: It’s a personal feud. It’s the Hatfield and McCoy’s, you know that. When people don’t trust each other in politics or in families, you have issues.
Daley says he’s tried to get the politicians together to smooth things out - but he says they won’t listen to his appeals.
- anon - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 9:15 am:
Compromises have to start somewhere.
- BandCamp - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 9:21 am:
===“We feel our work is completed,” said Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago.===
I love the “take my ball and go home” attitude these lawmakers seem to have.
- Truthful James - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 9:40 am:
For goodness sakes, lock up those Federal dollars now. Fight over the rest of the capital budget on Now signing day Plus One
- Ghost - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:03 am:
It appears the house approved a capital bill using dollars from the road fund. i.e. they are not miring the State in further debt, and are accessing the money that is available for this very purpose. Further they have targeted the fed match that was potentialy going to be lost to make sure we capture it.
The Gov and allies was releasing press’ers about the impending crisis and loss of fed matching fund without immediate action. I assume the Gov will order a special session for the senate to get this voted on immediately to stave of this impending crisis. After all, the Gov just wants to help the poeple with jobs and keep us from losing fed money, so no reason not to invoke his special session authority to get the senate to save those at risk fed dollars.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:05 am:
Why not do it? Now that the House GOP has raised the job creation estimate of the $34 billion capital plan from 600,000 to 700,000, a $1.8 billion plan would create 37,000 jobs.
Right.
Provides a bit of cover for House Dems, I suppose.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:05 am:
Ghost-
Then the problem becomes, “how will we replace the dollars from the road fund that previously were going to places other than roads.”
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:06 am:
Any start is a good start.
Our governor thinks too broadly and seems to have no real course of action or planning. $34 billion is too large for a state that has had budget and revenue stream troubles for the better of the past decade. What provisions are there if the revenue generators fail? At least a small number - or relatively small compared to Blago’s plan - gives us a basis with which we can work and eventually come to an agreement.
For all of the crowing the Senate did over wanting more pay, they sure don’t want to do much to validate their pay increase requests. Emil and Co. need to return and hammer out a compromise rather than staying away.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:16 am:
Word-
There are many sources that support a “number” of jobs supported by a given amount of infrastructure investment. The Federal Highway had to revise their numbers from 47,500 jobs per $1 billion invested in 1997 to 34,800 jobs per $1 billion invested in 2004 due to the eroding effects of construction inflation. There are 3 categories of induced employment from infrastructure investment - direct construction employment, construction supporting industries’ employment, and induced employment in the general economy created by the other two.
http://www.trtcmobility.org/upload/AASHTO%20Journal%2004-11-08.pdf
- Ghost - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:18 am:
Six, my impression, though I may be way off base, is that the house used numbers from IDOT that should reflect available funds. I have no idea if they included in available funds money mis/re-directed elsewhere.
I suppose we could lease out the Gov mansion to raise money.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 10:30 am:
Better than what we have now. See how low our expectations have been driven?
Do something!
- Bill - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 11:00 am:
Daley is so full of it. He loves this stuff. It makes him look like a statesman compared to those other two jokers. Making Daley look good is no easy task. At least Rod and Mikey are good at something. Emil’s right. The House dems should have just stayed home. Oh wait, most of them did yesterday.
- Lawman - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 11:53 am:
Using Illinois road funds to leverage federal dollars for road projects. What a novel idea !!
- Oneeye - Wednesday, Jul 16, 08 @ 8:18 pm:
How much longer can the state continue to allow the antics of the Speaker and Gov? Illinois is the laughing stock of the nation!