THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...State brought in record revenue in recent fiscal year...Will Pritzker sign nuke bill?...$40 billion for roads
July 10, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
We hope you enjoyed your weekend.
Do you ever have a Monday morning where you have absolutely no idea what the week holds? I have that feeling this morning. Let’s get at it.
Governor Pritzker holds a news conference on tourism at 11:30am. He also speaks at the opening of TechChicago Week this evening.
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YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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State ends fiscal year with record $50.7 billion in base revenue, sparking small surplus (Capitol News Illinois)
State revenues once again reached a record high in the fiscal year that ended June 30, creating what Gov. JB Pritzker called a “one-time” budget surplus of over $700 million.
The $50.7 billion in base general revenues that the state collected in fiscal year 2023 – which exclude one-time pandemic-related federal funds – topped last year’s previous record by $373 million.
That’s $726 million beyond what was projected by the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget in its most recent estimate adopted in May during negotiations for the fiscal year 2024 budget.
“It’s always good to have a surplus, and that's something that we've done consistently now for four years,” Pritzker said at an unrelated Friday news conference. “I would add that much of the surplus that we saw that came in at the end of the year is one-time dollars.”
In recent years, the state has dedicated surpluses to paying down long- and short-term debt, making pension payments beyond the amounts required in law and providing one-time temporary tax relief.
Pritzker indicated he’d continue to be cautious when considering spending priorities for one-time revenues, echoing his budget office, which noted that revenues have fluctuated wildly from month to month in recent years.
“This is a kind of an unexpected additional amount of money,” Pritzker said. “We're going to try to apply it to things like paying down debt, the things that we've been doing.”
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Illinois may lift historic ban on building nuclear power plants as state continues transition from coal and gas (Chicago Tribune)
Already home to more nuclear power plants than any state in the nation, Illinois is on the verge of lifting a nearly four-decade-old ban on building reactors as the state transitions from coal and natural gas.
The move comes as other states have rescinded similar bans and policymakers are taking a fresh look at nuclear as another alternative to generate energy without increasing carbon output.
And while the legislation lifting the ban in Illinois moved relatively quietly through the General Assembly earlier this year, the effort has led labor unions and environmentalists — two groups that typically align with the Democrats who dominate Springfield — to be on opposite sides of the issue. Labor sees the possibility of new nuclear plants as an opportunity to preserve high-paying jobs in the energy sector, while environmentalists see it as an expensive distraction from a future with cleaner power sources.
The sensitive political dynamic is playing out as Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign the bill into law. But even if he does, players on all sides agree Pritzker’s backing alone won’t lead to an immediate atomic energy boom in the state.
Still, the initiative stands as a major turning point and comes at a time when the nuclear industry is in the midst of change. The federal government has incentivized developing the next generation of reactors, and even Pritzker has mentioned the possibility that new nuclear technology is something to keep a close eye on. The governor has made the energy policy overhaul he signed into law two years ago that included help for three of the state’s nuclear power plants a hallmark of his first term.
“The devil’s in the details,” Pritzker told reporters in Springfield in early April, before the final version of the measure that would lift the ban was approved with bipartisan support in the General Assembly. “We want to make sure that we’re not just opening this up to nuclear everywhere or any type of nuclear.”
I’ve heard environmental groups are leaning on the Governor hard to veto this bill, but, despite his progressive ideations, he has not appeared to be anti-nuke so far.
IDOT unveils 6-year, $41 billion plan for infrastructure projects (Capitol News Illinois)
The Illinois Department of Transportation unveiled a plan on Friday for spending nearly $41 billion in federal, state and local funds over the next six years to repair and upgrade roads, bridges, airports, rail lines and other infrastructure throughout the state.
The latest version of the plan, which IDOT updates annually, is the largest multiyear plan in state history. It’s driven by the state’s 2019 Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure program. The initial six-year Rebuild Illinois plan included $33.2 billion for transportation, funded largely by annualized increases to the state’s motor fuel tax and increases to driving-related licensing fees that took effect in 2020.
“Over the next six years, we're investing over $40 billion to improve all modes of transportation across our great state,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference in Springfield. “And that means better roads and bridges, modernized transit and aviation, and expanded and faster passenger rail service. It even extends to improved river ports, new sewers and water infrastructure and a huge upgrade to bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.”
More than half of the plan, $27 billion, will go toward road and bridge projects, including $4.6 billion in the current fiscal year. That will fund repair and reconstruction of 2,866 miles of roadway and 9.8 million square feet of bridge deck on the state highway system, along with another 738 miles of roadway and 1.1 million square feet of bridge deck in systems maintained by local governments.
The project list includes $611.5 million for reconstruction and improvements to portions of Interstate 90 in Cook County that will include improving safety and access to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. The plan also calls for spending $135.1 million to expand portions of U.S. Highway 24 to four lanes in Peoria and Fulton counties; $156 million to replace a bridge over the Mississippi River in Quincy; and $116 million to replace a bridge over the Ohio River at Cairo.
The multiyear plan also earmarks $13.96 billion for other modes of transportation, including $9.85 billion for transit systems, $2.67 billion for freight and passenger rail, $1.25 billion for aviation projects, and $190 million for ports and waterways.
Among the intermodal projects in the plan are $100 million for safety and reliability improvements on Amtrak’s Saluki service between Chicago and Carbondale and runway improvements at municipal airports in Litchfield and Pontiac.
Related: $40.9B road program coming to Illinois. Here's what Springfield will get (State Journal-Register)
$1.9 billion in projects: Here's the plan for Peoria-area roads and bridges (Peoria Journal Star)
WHAT YOU MISSED ON THE ILLINOIZE LAST WEEK
Former Rep. Dan Brady Passes on Congressional, Statehouse Run in 2024
The Illinoize Podcast- Reporter Brenden Moore and GOP strategist Michael Butler
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Dan Brady will not seek election in 2024 (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Illinois grocery tax returns after one-year freeze (Illinois Public Media)
CO2 pipelines, utility rate requests await new Illinois Commerce Commission chair (State Journal-Register)
Johnson unveils ‘blueprint to transform’ Chicago, revealing ‘how we will govern’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Cassette tapes, parachute pants on display in Illinois State Museum Gen X exhibit (State Journal-Register)
Editorial: Providing decent health care in state's prisons challenging (Champaign News-Gazette)
Editorial: A compromise on health care for undocumented immigrants (Shaw Media)
Opinion: Gun violence dominates the news, but is crime out of control in Chicago? (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: The effects of gun violence ripple across Chicago’s economy (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Red flag tools are critical with assault weapons ban in limbo. We need court transparency. (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: If we get a new state flag, who pays to replace the old ones? (Shaw Media)
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