Illinois Business Journal Illinois Business Journal
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New Illinois ethics law spurs governor to bring deals in under the wire
. Sen. Pres. Emil Jones and Gov. Rod Blagojevich worked to delay and derail the “pay for play” ethics bill last year. It was eventually passed over the governor’s amendatory veto. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press. . By ALAN J. ORTBALS

   The new Illinois ethics law (P.A. 95-971) that took effect on Jan. 1 caused a stampede of greed, according to state State Rep. Ron Stephens, a Republican from Highland. The bill was designed to clamp down on “pay for play,” the practice of holding up contractors for large political contributions in order to get state contracts.
   “I think the governor’s recent crime spree - and that’s the U.S. Attorney’s words, not mine - is proof positive that the ethics bill is going to work,” said Stephens. “There was a sense of urgency about him to make all

these deals to get those donations because of the Jan. 1 effective date.”
   Stephens said the contributions that the governor was attempting to get from the Children’s Memorial Hospital chief and the horseracing industry were examples of “pay to play" [continue]

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Bill threatens to divert millions from cities, counties to fix state’s financial woes
By KERRY L. SMITH

   An Illinois Senate bill, if passed in 2009, could divert nearly $100 million in state income tax revenues from municipalities and counties that is currently promised to them by law.
   SB 2083 (The Emergency Budget Act of FY 2009), recently amended in the Illinois House of Representatives, seeks to allow the state to keep up to 8 percent of cities’ and counties’ state income tax share. Larry Frang, executive director of the Illinois

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The Emergency Budget Act of 2009, if it passes, threatens to divert $95 million from Illinois municipalities in FY 2010.
Municipal League, says if the bill passes it could mean an estimated loss of $95 million in FY 2010 alone.
   “The amendment grants the governor unprecedented authority to hold back money that was appropriated and owed to municipal and county governments from the Local Government Distributive Fund,” Frang said. “We’d already been projecting that, due to the [continue]
 

IDOT has hands full opening a path for the New Mississippi River Bridge
By ALAN J. ORTBALS

   While the Missouri Department of Transportation has been working on investigating the Mississippi riverbed for the location of bridge piers, the Illinois Department of Transportation has been busy working on the tangled web of railroads and utility lines running through the bridge approach area.
   Initial plans were to relocate the railroads running through the area, but that turned out to be an insurmountable task. According to Brooks Brestal, IDOT’s deputy project manager for the New Mississippi River bridge project, the cost of moving the railroads was staggering.
   There are five railroads running in the half mile closest to the river in that area: Terminal Railroad Association, Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and CFX. Brestal said it would be much easier if the railroads could have been consolidated in order to shorten the length of the bridges running over them. Plus, it would be much cheaper to build roads on grade than to elevate them. [continue]

 

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