It is telling that when a long-awaited $33 billion state capital funding bill proposed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and approved by the Senate did not make it off the House floor by the time the spring legislative session expired, it did not surprise anyone.
House Speaker Michael Madigan raised concerns shared by state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle: that Blagojevich cannot be trusted to release the money for lawmakers’ projects.
"It's all about trust, and whether people are prepared to trust Governor Blagojevich, and trust his record of broken promises," he told WUIS's Amanda Vinicky a day before the bill failed. Asked whether he he was prepared to trust the governor: "No."
Never mind that neither chamber had been able to agree on a new revenue source for capital funding in the first place.
The Senate had passed a revised version of Blagojevich’s capital bill, which called for a partial lease of the Illinois lottery and gambling expansion that would include three new gaming facilities, expanded gaming at existing riverboats and thousands more slot machines at horseracing tracks. House Democrats, who had opposed a similar gaming expansion without a reform package last fall, reaffirmed their position by not taking a vote.
The deadlock leaves many unanswered questions about the future of Illinois’ infrastructure. Unless the governor calls for a special legislative session, another summer construction season will pass with no new major road construction or public transit improvements. A capital funding bill won’t likely be considered until at least after the November election, and some fear it could be as late as the end of the governor’s term in 2011.
The last capital funding bill in Illinois was passed in 1999, under then-governor George Ryan, but funds from that capital plan dried up in 2003. After a costly winter snow season, the Illinois Department of Transportation has already announced it will tend to only the most crucial maintenance projects until the end of June.
Despite the critical need for improvements to state highways, bridges, public schools and universities, many lawmakers could not shake their distrust of the governor. In closed-door meetings to discuss capital funding between House and Senate caucus leaders, the mood was “cranky,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago).
“It’s a lot of talk about nobody trusting the governor, but he comes back and says he doesn’t trust us either,” said Currie.
Why trust matters
Trust is important to state lawmakers, particularly in an election year when voting for higher taxes or state fees carries political risks. Lawmakers want guarantees that capital projects in their districts will be addressed before they support more taxes.
Some are still unsure the governor would sign off on their projects if a funding solution is reached.
“About the last thing I’d do is vote for something like that unless I know that the needs are explicitly stated,” said Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora), whose political fortunes are built on anti-tax credentials. Lauzen listed pieces from the 2002 state budget bill Blagojevich still hasn’t honored, such as money for a new roof at the Hesed House homeless shelter in Aurora and a $250,000 road project in Batavia.
“These were allocations in the 2002 budget plan that were part of the take of the give when I voted for a cigarette tax increase, and I paid politically for that,” he said. “It’s in writing, and by golly it needs to be written in blood.”
According to the Illinois constitution, appropriations for capital projects must be passed separate from bills that raise the revenue for those projects. Even if a new revenue source is authorized by lawmakers, the governor has the final say on which projects actually receive the funding.
To resolve this issue, lawmakers like Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville) are proposing “lock-box” stipulations to be included in a capital funding bill to ensure money would go to the projects promised.
Even members of the governor’s capital coalition, Illinois Works, say the procedure for selecting infrastructure projects must be set in stone.
“One of the things that is an absolutely requirement for this goes back to the trust issue,” said Kane County Chairman and Illinois Works member Karen McConnaughay. “The process for determination of projects cannot result in a political earmark grab bag. It absolutely has to have a process that is based on need.”
For McConnaughay and the people of Kane County, capital need means easing regional congestion by improving the Illinois State Road 47 and I-90 interchange. Kane County has joined with McHenry County, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and the Village of Huntley to fund such a project, which typically requires state and federal assistance, she said.
“There is increasing recognition on the part of local officials that we really have to pool our resources in order to deal with these very, very expensive, but very much needed capital programs.”
Some who follow state politics in Illinois say Blagojevich’s poor rapport with lawmakers is the number one reason capital funding stalled.
“There has never been a governor who has been so widely perceived as being an individual whose word is no good, who is a consummate liar, and you can’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth,” said Charles N. Wheeler III, a former Sun-Times reporter who has covered state politics since the 1960s. “That’s virtually unheard of in Illinois politics, and it makes it very difficult to get things done.”
Wheeler pointed to former Governor Ryan, who, despite a recent felony corruption conviction, was known as a leader who could always be trusted to stick by his word.
“If he said, ‘This is going to happen,’ or ‘I’m going to do this,’ you could take it to the bank,” Wheeler said, “and the same for [former governors] Jim Edgar and Jim Thompson.”
During Ryan’s first year in office, Illinois lawmakers passed Illinois FIRST, a $12 billion capital program funded largely by a $30 hike in annual license plate fees and an increase in liquor taxes.
Blagojevich’s proposed capital funding bill began at $25 billion, and was to be paid for through an 80 percent lease of the Illinois lottery. In March he enlisted the bi-partisan support of former U.S. Representative and Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Poshard, a Democrat, and former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican, to take stock of regional infrastructure needs during a statewide speaking tour. The bill eventually grew to $33 billion, and added an expanded gaming package and a portion of existing gasoline taxes to help generate funding.
Continue in second column
Crumbling infrastructure
Most lawmakers agree there is urgent need for improvements to Illinois’ crumbling infrastructure, which is ranked one of the eight worst managed systems in the country by the Pew Center on the States. Quality infrastructure is needed to put people to work and spur local economies, advocates say.
Doug Whitley, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, said new businesses need a place to set up shop, and consumers need a convenient way to get to them. Capital funding would also free up railway bottlenecks and preserve Chicago’s role as one of the largest intermodal transportation hubs in the world.
“Today’s politicians don’t have these commitments because they’re scared to raise taxes,” Whitley said. “It’s shortsighted because when you invest in infrastructures, you’re investing in jobs, and those jobs are not going to be shipped overseas.”
The current capital bill includes, among many other projects, $10.8 billion for roads and bridges, $5 billion for transit, $4.1 billion for schools and more than $1 billion for state universities. Up to $9 billion of the highway and transit projects could be funded by federal matching grants.
More controversial than which projects get picked, however, are the ways to pay for them.
According to a May 6th memo from Madigan’s office, Blagojevich is open to tweaking the bill’s revenue source, but is steadfastly opposed to any increases in state sales or income taxes.
As for Madigan, who was represented by Currie in the memo, income tax is the fairest way for residents of the state to share the cost of capital funding. He would however, consider a gaming package if it included significant reforms.
Senate President Emil Jones, represented by Sen. John Sullivan (D-Quincy), qualified his support for a gaming expansion by saying it must include set asides for education. But he favored an income tax increase, rather than gaming, higher sales or cigarette taxes or drivers license fee increases.
Republican lawmakers in both chambers have indicated support for an expansion of gaming in conjunction with a lease of the Illinois lottery. They would come into play if the governor calls the General Assembly back into session to pass a capital bill. According to the Illinois constitution, a 3/5 majority must be reached to pass legislative measures after the May 31st legislative deadline.
Gaming may be the easiest sell for lawmakers to pass a capital plan, particularly if it comes with an ethics component, Wheeler said.
“To me, the dark horse in all of this is gambling expansion,” Wheeler said, though he personally disfavors expanded gambling because of its potential social consequences. “The hang up is the House Democrats’ insistence that there be real strict ethical requirements so that new gaming positions, new licenses and new contracts don’t go to campaign contributors and friends of the connected.”
Squandered federal funds
With no signs of a capital plan passing before the fall, transit and road building advocates fear the state may lose out on its share of $9 billion in federal matching grants in the Highway Trust Fund. The fund was set up by Congress in 2005 to help pay for highway and transit congestion relief, but it isn’t expected to last much longer.
“The highway fund is expected to literally run out of money by 2009, and the transit program is projected to run out in roughly 2011,” said James LaBelle, vice president of Chicago Metropolis 2020, and urban housing and transportation research group. “If Congress can’t agree on a new bill, what they’ll do is approve short term extensions of the previous bill,” he said.
Highway projects typically receive 80 percent of their funding from the federal government, but little, if any of these funds will be realized with the current state budget, which is expected to come up $1 billion short. For now, IDOT only has enough money for minor surface construction projects and safety issues. New roads projects and much-needed lane expansions to ease regional congestion will have to wait.
June 2008