House Republicans Unveil Rebuilding and Investing in Illinois Capital Plan
February 19, 2007
Rockford, IL…Citing the need for better roads, schools and jobs throughout Illinois, House Republicans today unveiled a fiscally responsible jobs and infrastructure plan. At a press conference at the Rockford Regional Airport, the legislators introduced the Rebuilding and Investing in Illinois plan which is a $5 billion investment in Illinois infrastructure including roads, schools and mass transit.
“The State of Illinois is responsible for maintaining and improving our roadways and schools,” said House Republican Leader Tom Cross. “It has been seven years since we made a major investment in our infrastructure. We believe the plan we are putting forth today is reasonable and responsible.”
Each year 1000 miles of Illinois roads and 150 to 200 bridges will be in need of serious repair. Rebuilding and Investing in Illinois will invest $3 billion to improve Illinois roads and mass transit, $1.5 billion for school construction and $500 million for universities and community colleges.
“Our roadways and mass transportation are important and necessary to our daily lives,” said State Representative Dave Winters. “We use our roads to go to work, drive our children to school, and even to go to the grocery store. Our emergency vehicles also use our roads to save lives every day. Repairing and improving our infrastructure is vital to ensuring the safety of our families as we go about our daily lives.”
“It is important to have a capital budget that strongly supports school construction to maintain our current schools, to expand and build new schools when it is needed, and to relieve some of the burden on local property taxpayers,” said Wait. “I believe the capital development plan we are introducing today is a fiscally responsible way of addressing the needs of Illinois schools.”
State Representative Bob Pritchard (R-Hinckley) noted that the school construction funding is needed to fulfill a promise made to school districts in 2002.
“Hinckley-Big Rock school district, located in my district, has been on a waiting list to receive state funds promised to them in 2002,” said Pritchard. “The district has completed the work but had to borrow $2 million to cover the state’s share of the project. The funds from this new capital plan will help repay Hinckley-Big Rock and the other 23 schools on the 2002 waiting list for the projects completed without state funds.”
Pritchard, who represents Northern Illinois University and Kishwaukee Community College, said a capital plan is also needed to help our institutions of higher learning. “We have not only grossly under-funded higher education institutions, but we have also failed to provide capital improvement funding which has forced institutions to raise student tuition to tackle safety issues and increase space for more students,” said Pritchard.
Rebuilding and Investing in Illinois is expected to generate around $600 million by allowing existing Illinois gaming boats to purchase additional gaming positions. Under the House Republican plan, a total of 5000 new positions would be available for purchase by the four suburban gaming boats and another 1,000 positions would be available for purchase downstate. The increased gaming positions are also expected to generate annual additional revenues for the state of around $450 million.
“Gaming is here in Illinois and it is not going away. The bottom line is if we don’t capitalize on the revenue generated and the jobs created our neighboring states will. We have an opportunity to invest this money in our future - in our children’s education, and our growing transportation needs. Our plan is the only plan in recent years with a clearly defined, dedicated revenue source that won’t dig our children and grandchildren deeper in debt,” said Deputy Republican Leader Brent Hassert (R-Romeoville).