Infrastructure now

Conservatives fret over future taxes, but the current ones are financing $23.5B in critical road, bridge improvements

Reconstruction of the infamous I-80 bridge across the Des Plaines River is one of the many projects being funded by the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital plan. (Flickr/Jestzenpolis)

By Ted Cox

The Center Square warned over the weekend that “the recent slew of tax and fee increases for infrastructure programs likely won't be the last Illinois taxpayers see.”

That’s dog-bites-man news if ever there was some. Roads require repairs and bridges require fixing if not outright replacement. Over time, infrastructure will always require investment and reinvestment, and how else does a government pay for that aside from taxes?

The Center Square story went on to list the “slew” of new taxes the General Assembly approved this year, including doubling the state gas tax from 19 to 38 cents a gallon, which it stated had already raised $414 million in two months, $200 million more than last year. Of course, that increase in the gas tax was passed to fuel the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital plan.

The story quoted state Rep. Allen Skillicorn, an anti-tax Republican from East Dundee, as saying that the increase in the gas tax should be repealed. “It doesn’t specify what projects it goes to. It doesn’t specify the kind of projects it goes to,” he said. “And literally some of the infrastructure projects that some of the villages were asking for were like computer systems and water treatment plants, which have nothing to do with transportation.”

Well, on Monday, Gov. Pritzker and his administration got specific about where a lot of that $45 billion is going to go to over the next six years, through the release of a Multi-Year Plan laying out the projects that will be going forward with $23.5 billion of that money, more than half of the total capital plan.

“These road and bridge projects will create and support hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next five years for hardworking Illinoisans in every part of our state," Pritzker said in a statement. "Illinois has some of the most important roads in America — let's make them outlast and outperform those across the nation."

"In my nearly 30 years at this agency, today might be the most important day in our history," added Omer Osman, acting secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation. "This Multi-Year Plan gets us on the path to fixing our roads and bridges, putting policies into action that ensure our transportation system in Illinois is reliable, safe, and provides economic opportunity for generations to come. It is the blueprint for how we Rebuild Illinois.”

In April, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association put out its annual nationwide bridge report, finding that Illinois had 2,273 bridges rated “structurally deficient.” Only Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma had more.

Last year, the Illinois Economic Policy Institute released a paper finding that IDOT roadways have deteriorated over the last two decades due to lack of repairs and the failure to pass a major capital-spending bill. ILEPI charged that 20 percent of IDOT roads are rated in “poor” condition, up from 8 percent in 2001, and 31 percent of all bridges across the state, almost a third, are more than 50 years old, with 8 percent of IDOT bridges considered “backlogged,” meaning overdue for replacement.

With the recognized need for an infrastructure investment, the capital bill passed with bipartisan support and was signed by Pritzker in June. Indeed, one of its strongest backers was former Peoria Republican Congressman Ray LaHood, who also served as U.S. transportation secretary under President Obama. He argued for infrastructure by saying Illinois was “one big pothole.”

Former Peoria Congressman Ray LaHood, a Republican, argued forcibly earlier this year for a new capital infrastructure plan. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

The annual road report found that the three busiest state bridges rated deficient were I-90/94 over Stewart Avenue in Cook County, with 246,500 daily crossings, I-55 over Madison Street in DuPage County, with 164,000, and I-94 over the Skokie River, also in Cook, with 158,600. Monday’s announcement laid out $6 million for the I-94 bridge, $1.25 million for the I-55 bridge, and a relatively reasonable $200,000 for the I-90/94 bridge. It also set three installments of $13.5 million for repairs to the infamous I-80 bridge over the Des Plaines River, which has seen a union construction group post signs nearby reading, “Bridge ahead in critical condition” and “Cross bridge at your own risk.”

Oh, yes, and there’s also $3.9 million designated for a stretch of Illinois Route 25-St. Charles Street in Elgin and in Skillicorn’s hometown of East Dundee.

These are just a few of the hundreds of projects statewide in the transportation portion of the capital plan, as laid out in the IDOT Multi-Year Plan. So Rebuild Illinois is delivering on what taxpayers paid for.

But, to return to the Center Square story, that’s not good enough for anti-tax conservatives. It quoted Illinois Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Todd Maisch as warning that the federal government wants to see a 10-year infrastructure plan, and that more taxes would be necessary.

That’s the same basic tactic anti-taxers are using with Pritzker’s “fair tax,” the graduated state income tax which will go before voters next year needing a 60 percent majority to amend the state constitution. Sure, they say, the governor’s tax plan to charge 97 percent of state wage earners the same or lower taxes, while just the top 3 percent pay an increased $3 billion, might sound good, but it could lead the way to additional taxes.

The simple solution to that is to pass the reasonable, sensible progressive income tax, and then vote down any additional taxes that prove too arduous for taxpayers.

“You can’t trust government to make that deal,” they insist. But who elects the legislature? The people, the voters, and they have the right to hold their state representatives and senators accountable for the taxes they pass — simple as that, no worries, no anxiety, no dread.

Oh, and unless you read to the bottom, you might miss that the Center Square story reveals that Maisch actually endorsed the gas tax that went toward the capital plan.

“Maisch said the Chamber of Commerce supported the gas-tax increase as needed investment in infrastructure. He said the plan was better than what lawmakers had approved in the past,” the story read, and quoted Maisch as saying, “This is much more formulaic, must more transparent, and consequently taxpayers should feel better about this program than they have previous programs.”

So let’s embrace the road repairs and transportation upgrades the current gas tax is helping to pay for, shall we, and worry about other taxes and whether they’re appropriate when they come up down the road.