Following a series of 30 public hearings and meetings that began in March, a coalition created by Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced last Tuesday a $31 billion comprehensive infrastructure plan and recommendations on how to fund the plan. If brought to the Illinois General Assembly and approved, the University would be allotted a great portion of the funds including money for the renovation of Lincoln Hall.

“There is a lot at stake for the Urbana-Champaign campus; there is definitely need to pass this now,” said David Gross, executive director of Governmental and Public Affairs at Southern Illinois University. Southern’s president, Glenn Poshard, was a major leader on the coalition along with former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The bipartisan coalition was marketed as a potential solution to the gridlock in the Illinois General Assembly on the road to passing a statewide infrastructure plan. The task force consists of a group of ten business and labor leaders led by Hastert and Poshard, who were chosen by the governor.

Disagreement among legislators concerning mass transit funding as well as other construction projects throughout Illinois has put a working capital infrastructure plan on hold. The state has been without a capital construction plan for nine years.

“If you don’t make the investments you need now, it will cost more down the road,” Gross said.

Within the six weeks of public hearings and meetings, the coalition heard and evaluated a variety of issues such as funding for health care, energy, environmental projects, mass transportation systems, K-12 schools and university projects. A study led by Southern Illinois University economics professor Subhash Sharma found that a capital plan of about $31 billion would create 535,000 new full-time jobs, lead to $49 billion in economic activity and more than $2.9 billion in state and local tax revenues.

The plan would be funded by fuel taxes, increased gaming, federal funds and leasing management rights of the state lottery to private entrepreneurs, all of which have faced opposition in the legislature as sources of funding.

Gross said the plan recommends investing “windfall profits” from the motor fuel tax back into transportation to benefit motorists. About $550 million is expected to be raised from expanding the gaming industry in Illinois, by increasing jobs in Chicago casinos and at race tracks. About $7 billion is expected to come from state lottery leases. Federal funds provide about $9.3 billion from sources such as the federal fuel tax.

“Each year the state fails to access this federal money, the value drops by about ten percent,” Gross said.

Projects identified for the coalition by the Illinois Board of Higher Education include several components at the Urbana-Champaign campus. Among the benefits to the University, the renovation to Lincoln Hall and money invested in technology stand out as particularly important.

“Lincoln Hall is a signature building at the University,” said Randall Kangas, assistant vice principal for planning and budgeting. “It is large and the vast majority of students have classes there at some point.”

The building has not been remodeled since 1930 and is technologically out of date, Kangas said. The recommendations allocate $55 million to renovate Lincoln Hall.

While the University is also known for its outstanding engineering projects, a $206 million grant provided by the National Science Foundation for the University to engineer the world’s fastest computer cannot be put into action until the University-based National Center for Supercomputing Applications can provide a facility for the project. The plan suggests providing the center with $60 million to fund the Petascale computing facility.

“There is a tremendous time pressure to pass a construction plan,” Kangas said. “I think Speaker Hastert and President Poshard are trying very hard to make legislators aware of current higher education struggles of funding and budgeting.”

The plan also allocates $400 million for projects deferred while funds were lacking. The cost has been placed on students through tuition by universities across Illinois.

“Currently, many students have to pay these deferred maintenance costs,” Gross said. “The plan would relieve some of the pressure of this fee.”

The legislature has less than a week to pass a budget before the May 31 adjournment deadline. Sessions after then require more votes to pass any spending plan for the year, essentially requiring Republican support in the Democrat-controlled legislature.

The coalition’s proposed allocations of state funding for the University include:

• $42 million to construct Electrical and Computer Engineering Building
• $18.9 million to construct a Post Harvest Crop Research facility
• $55.1 million for renovating Lincoln Hall
• $60,000 for a Petascale Computing Facility

  Source: Illinois Works Coalition recommendations