With road projects in danger, Gov. Pat Quinn to call special session
By DAVE McKINNEY and KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporters June 6, 2011 1:02PM
Gov. Pat Quinn comments on the status of the capitol construction bill, Monday, June 6, 2011 at Randolph Street and Wacker Drive. | Jean Lachat~Sun-Times
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Updated: July 15, 2011 12:14AM
Facing the prospect that construction on roads statewide would have to be halted, Gov. Pat Quinn said Monday he will call Illinois legislators back to Springfield for a special session to approve spending for the state’s capital construction program.
Quinn said he plans to speak with the four legislative leaders about just when to call lawmakers back in the face of what he described as a dire situation.
He wants them to work out a deal to avert $16.6 billion in construction delays that are looming because of a budgetary impasse that was left unresolved last week as the Illinois Legislature ended its spring session. Legislators couldn’t agree on a construction-spending bill. There was a disagreement between the House and the Senate over tacking on to the legislation $430 million in education and social services spending.
That means state-funded road construction — new projects as well as continuing work — would have to be stopped, not only leaving road, bridge and other construction projects unfinished but also putting 52,000 people out of work, Quinn warned.Legislators ended their spring session last week and went home without dealing with one final piece of the state budget:
approving an appropriations bill so the state can spend money on its capital construction program and keep work going during the busy summer construction season.
Unless lawmakers authorize spending for the construction program, Quinn said that, starting June 17, he would have to begin the process of suspending a host of projects.
“It’s a very serious job crisis,” Quinn said at the site of the Wacker Drive reconstruction project in downtown Chicago, one of the projects he said would have to stop.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton agreed with Quinn that lawmakers still had work to do.
“Without sufficient funding to education and human services, President Cullerton believes that the budget is incomplete,” Cullerton spokesman Rikeesha Phelon said. “He looks forward to meeting with the leaders to chart a way forward on the budget and capital construction program.”
Lawmakers approved a state operating budget that hits education and human services with some of the biggest cuts. Quinn has criticized them for this.
State Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) said the bill to reauthorize the capital construction spending was “basically hijacked by the Senate Democrats” so they could add nearly $500 million in spending. He said lawmakers “absolutely” need to reauthorize spending for the construction projects.
Murphy said the state might have the authority to keep spending money on the projects beyond the end of the fiscal year, so “this has the potential to be a sort of manufactured crisis.”
But Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig said the state won’t have the authority to spend money for any work done beginning July 1, when the state’s new fiscal year starts.
Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka said she will continue to pay contractors as long as she is legally able.
“My message to fellow state leaders is simple: Do not play games with capital projects and the jobs they bring to Illinois,” she said.
Contributing: AP
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