It seems like people are so worried about where Springfield lawmakers will find the $25 billion to fund the Illinois Capital Improvement plan, that no one is asking how that money will be spent.
Well, almost no one.
The Daily Herald editorial board today endorsed a proposal to ensure that needed infrastructure repairs and expansions are undertaken before pork is handed out to politically powerful districts. The proposal is one of the recommendations of the Metropolitan Planning Council, which says that more oversight is needed for the project, particularly in these lean economic times:
It may seem hard to believe, but Illinois does not have a process for rating all transportation projects to determine which make the best use of taxpayers' dollars. Such a process is sorely needed, if for no other reason than that the state does not have enough money to fund all of the projects on its wish list. According to a 2007 study by the American Economics Group, Illinois has almost $9 billion in surface transportation capital needs per year over the next five years; however, only $2 billion a year is spent for surface transportation projects.
The Herald points to the state's last major infrastructure improvement effort, the Illinois FIRST plan, as an example of what can happen without a system in place to judge construction projects on their own merits. But in sounding such warnings, the Herald and Metropolitan Planning Council are not alone. As we reported in March, other community groups have also began calling for increased transparency as the capital plan moves forward.
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