State may lose billions for better roads
SCHAUMBURG -- Unless the governor and General Assembly get their acts together, Illinois stands to lose billions of dollars in federal money that could pay for improved roads and rail service, two of the state's congressional members warned northwest suburban government and business leaders Thursday.
Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Melissa Bean met with about 30 village officials and business people -- including Elgin City Manager Femi Folarin and representatives from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce and Elgin Community College -- at a Northwest Suburban Leadership Forum.
(Jessie King/For The Courier News)
And while they had plenty to complain about on the federal level, they saved their most urgent warning for the state officials.
"We are far past the time we need a capital spending bill in Illinois," said Durbin, the Senate majority whip. "We (in Congress) got 30 percent more for highways than any time in Illinois history. But the money is just sitting there" because, with no Illinois capital budget passed by the legislature last year, no matching state funds are available.
"By not coming up with $1.7 billion (from the state) now, there's $4 billion (in federal funds) in jeopardy," said Bean, D-Barrington.
That also includes grants to engineer the proposed STAR (Suburban Transit Access Route) commuter rail service, which would link Elgin with O'Hare International Airport and Joliet, and money to extend commuter service farther on the Union Pacific Northwest and West lines.
Bean said the capital budget proposed this week by Gov. Rod Blagojevich still is too small to take advantage of what Washington has offered.
"Unless the state passes sufficient funding for these projects soon, those guaranteed federal dollars will disappear," Bean said. "These projects will once again have to compete against projects in other states. We won this fight in Congress once. We don't want to fight it again."
Worried about rail sale
Several municipal officials including Folarin noted that the STAR line is endangered by Canadian National Railway's plan to use the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway as a freight train bypass around Chicago.
Fox Valley residents also have worried that the increased EJ&E traffic would block street crossings. On the other hand, Chicago's city government and close-in suburbs favor the proposed takeover, because it would decrease the number of freight trains in their towns.
Durbin said the CN/EJ&E deal "would have winners and losers, and most of the losses would be right here in your area."
He said he wrote a letter to the Surface Transportation Board, which must approve the takeover, asking the board to follow up recent public comment sessions with public hearings.
The senator said he's especially worried that increased freight traffic could make it harder to start up the STAR service.
He said he also worries that CN's plan to close down a key rail connection in Chicago's Chinatown area could make it difficult for Amtrak passenger trains to get into and out of Union Station on time just as Amtrak "is cooking" in Illinois, with several new routes and 50 percent more riders.
Trade, taxes, debt
Asked by business owners about the foreign trade gap, Durbin said, "Globalization is as inevitable as gravity. We just have to figure out how to succeed at it."
He said we have to stop letting other countries cheat on trade agreements, as when China keeps its currency value artificially low. He said American exporters also are hobbled by having to include the cost of employee health care in their prices.
"The tax code is bigger than the Chicago phone book, and by and large it's special provisions to help special interests," Durbin said. "Now we encourage parking assets overseas. Why not give the tax benefit to the employer who keeps the work at home?"
Durbin and Bean warned that the federal debt has gone up more during the Bush years than through all previous history, and the war alone is adding half a billion dollars a day.
