MOLINE, Ill. — When Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a $53.1 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year into law, it became the largest in state history. $5.3 billion dollars is set aside for road and bridge improvements, both at the state and local level.
Even though the Illinois DOT says it's ready to take on a busy construction season, some lawmakers say the money could be spent more effectively.
"We have $5 billion right now sitting in the road and construction fund from the increase of the gas tax from 2019," State Rep. Toni McCombie, R-Savanna, said in reference to Pritzker's 'Rebuild Illinois' plan which was passed back in 2019. That plan doubled the gas tax rate, with the plan of adding funds for road, bridge and mass transit improvements.
"We can't spend those dollars because of processes and procedures through IDOT because they can't let the projects out," McCombie said.
State Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, explained how that procedure came to be.
"Politicians tried to get too much into the process and were granted favoritism to get their project done over somebody else's and so we rightfully put in rules restricting that and trying to make road improvement as nonpolitical as possible, and trying to replace the roads that need it the most. But when you restrict that, you sometimes restrict public opinion and constituent efforts to get roads repaired," Halpin said.
Halpin also explained the challenge IDOT is facing.
"It's been difficult to recruit engineers and recruit others to work on some of these projects," he said.
News 8 reached out to IDOT, which provided this written statement:
"We have always kept a balance in these accounts, some of which is required by law, but they generally go down during the construction season when projects are underway and payments are being made to contractors. We’ve seen those balances grow in recent years due to passage of the Rebuild Illinois capital program and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act at the federal level. As we enter into our busiest construction seasons ever with some of our largest projects in our history in the works, those balances will be decreasing.”
Currently, Illinois has the 2nd highest gas tax in the nation with the rate going up from $0.454 to $0.47 per gallon in July 1.