Suburban construction projects to continue
Major construction projects in the process of reshaping the suburbs won't be stopped, now that state lawmakers on Wednesday approved the needed cash after a weeks long political standoff.
Among the projects is the DuPage County widening of Butterfield Road, a major thoroughfare that could have caused suburban drivers more headaches if construction would have stalled.
“They are well into this project, and it would have been a disservice to all the communities affected if this was halted at this point,” Warrenville Mayor David Brummel said of the $52.6 million project.
It could have been halted if lawmakers had delayed approving the state's yearly construction spending.
Gov. Pat Quinn warned that without the spending bill, Illinois would have no legal authority to continue spending money new roads, bridge repairs or building upgrades once the current budget expires June 30. He predicted that would mean the loss of about 52,000 construction jobs.
This is usually a routine process, but this year Senate Democrats tried to add $430 million in unrelated spending to the construction bill. The House refused to go along.
Eventually, though, Democrats relented and Republicans praised them for it.
“We don't have an additional $430 million to spend,” Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican, said.
The House and Senate both voted Wednesday to send the construction program to Quinn. A spokeswoman says the governor plans to act on it soon.
The action means progress on projects like the Algonquin bypass in McHenry County won't be stopped when the state's fiscal year ends June 30.
Rep. Mike Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican, said that because each individual lawmaker has a lot at stake with the local projects involved, it's tough for any one group to play political games with the program.
“It becomes very politically tenuous,” Tryon said.
“You can't use this for political warfare,” he said.
Wheaton Mayor Mike Gresk said it's one thing to stop funding for a project on the drawing board. It's another when the work already has started.
Gresk said it would have been “unacceptable” to stop the Butterfield project.
“This is for the public good,” Gresk said. “They are expanding a major east-west thoroughfare through the county.”
The construction projects were lawmakers' main reason for heading to Springfield Wednesday, but they used the time to cut their own pay as well.
Legislation from Sen. Dan Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat, forces lawmakers to take 12 unpaid days this year and freezes pay hikes as well. The changes will cost each lawmaker $3,900. Their base salary is $67,836.
The Senate voted 48-4 to send the legislation to Quinn.
Sen. Tom Johnson, a West Chicago Republican, was one of the four senators voting against the pay cut, calling it “pandering.”
“I don't think it means anything except it diminishes the work of everybody in this chamber,” Johnson said.
The savings from the pay cuts, about $560,000, won't make much of a dent in the state's $8 billion budget deficit.
Kotowski, though, said lawmakers should send a statement by shouldering some of the state's budget cuts themselves.
“We're willing to sacrifice,” he said.