Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.Residents, businesses and public officials are raising concerns about safety, impeded access to their neighborhoods and other issues due to the April closing of a bridge on 26th Street in East St. Louis.They want the damaged bridge to be repaired and reopened quickly, but word is that it may take months. No official timetable has been released.“It has my area blocked in and a lot of my elderly people are having problems,” said Kinnis Williams Sr., Democratic precinct committeeman for the area. “ It’s an old neighborhood, and there are a bunch of elderly people living there. They are concerned and I am concerned for them.”Williams is also the St. Clair County Circuit Clerk.A vehicle damaged the heavily traveled bridge on 26th Street just southwest of Missouri Avenue, or Highway 15, on April 21, forcing the Illinois Department of Transportation to close it indefinitely over safety concerns. Initial inspections found “significant damage to multiple truss members,” Dawn Johnson, regional communications liaison for Region 5 of the Illinois Department of Transportation, said last month.
The bridge allows motorists to avoid having to cross Norfolk Southern railroad tracks that run beneath the structure. In East St. Louis, residents and others are often frustrated about navigating around stopped trains that block roads, so the bridge closing is particularly aggravating.Illinois Department of Transportation officials are aware of the impact of the closing, but they had to close it to ensure the safety of motorists, Johnson has said.“Our structural engineers are still assessing the bridge,” she said this week. “We anticipate determining our preliminary plans in a couple of weeks.”Meanwhile, residents and business people remain frustrated.Linda Joiner, whose 92-year old mom has been a longtime East St. Louis resident, said the bridge situation “is horrible.”“I use that bridge two, three, four times a day. I go across it to go to work, to go to church, to go shopping, everything,” Joiner said.The bridge closing is “terrifying” to her mother, who lives nearby and counts on Joiner to be able to get to her quickly, like during recent severe storms. Joiner couldn’t get to her quickly by the easy route that the bridge provides.“I tried to go through Alorton to get on Bond. There was a train sitting on Bond, not moving. So, I decided to go back around to take 18th Street to get to Bond,” she said. “It’s like dodging a mine field on some of the streets in the city, always has been. But now we are going to have even more potholes because trucks and cars and everybody has to take these two different routes.”Part of the safety factor too is that Joiner doesn’t want to be stuck in her car on the road waiting for a train to move.“From a safety perspective, I am not going to sit there and be a sitting duck for somebody possibly wanting to rob me, hurt me or cause any kind of problem,” she said. “I hate to be that way, but that’s the world we live in right now.“It has nothing to do with my love for the city. I love the city,” she said.Her ties to East St. Louis are deep, as are her mother’s, who lives in the house Joiner’s father built.“My point is something as simple as a bridge being shut down can wreak all kinds of havoc,” she said. “People have to find a different way to get to work. It’s just bad.”John McIntosh, owner of New York Cleaners on State Street, is worried that some of his customers will go to other cleaners to avoid the hassle of getting to his business because of the 26th Street bridge closure.“It is obviously creating an inconvenience for customers getting here,” he said. “And, it could also have an impact where we could end up losing business due to the lack of access.“If customers can’t reach us, they may choose to go to some easier alternative. It could have a bigger impact on our employees who depend on customers to give us work.”McIntosh said some customers have complained about the bridge being closed. “And, we are not getting any clear-cut answers,” he said. “I don’t know how quick they are going to respond, but I have heard it could be mid-July. That is a long time.”A bigger concern, he said, is that people who need emergency services may not get them as quickly with the bridge being closed.“At any given moment you could have a blockage of a railroad. That bridge was the only confident thoroughfare that you had to get to the highway to access a need for maybe some emergency,” McIntosh said.He said there should be a town hall meeting where state Transportation Department officials can hear residents’ concerns and let people know their plans for the bridge.

Joshua Carter

/

Belleville News-Democrat The bridge on 26th St. near Missouri Ave., or Highway 15, in East St. Louis, Ill. closed on April 19, 2024.

Jung Truck Service Inc., based in Mascoutah, has a building at 2400 McCasland Ave. in East St. Louis where trucks move in and out and are loaded and unloaded. The bridge closing has had an impact on the business, according to company President Bruce Jung.Jung Trucking normally averages about 250 trucks in his East St. Louis facility daily.“We’re still getting them. But it’s such a lengthy way for them to get to us,” he said. “Plus our trucks. We run a fleet of 100 trucks. It has added so much time to everybody’s day to go around that bridge.“One of the things that attracted us to that property in the very beginning was the fact you could come off of (Interstate) 255 and stay on state routes and basically not have ground level rail crossings.”Another big concern about the closed bridge, Jung said, is public safety.“What are fire trucks and ambulances doing that would normally take that bridge? They are taking the chance of being stopped at a railroad crossing. That is a real big factor,” Jung said.He said trains often block roads in East St. Louis. “If something happens at one of our facilities, how is fire or ambulance going to get to us necessarily or get back out?”There just aren’t many alternate routes, Jung said.“I couldn’t tell you how many thousands of commuters take that way to get to St. Louis in the mornings,” he said. “ Thousands, I am sure.”Jung said it is an important corridor “not only for trucks, but the general public.”Williams, the precinct committeeman for the area, acknowledged the problem with the trains that sit on tracks and block the roads in East St. Louis and Alorton, creating long wait periods for motorists before they can continue on east or west.“If you go either way besides the bridge… and go through Alorton or by 21st and Bond, Market or Trendley, you’re going to get stopped by a train,” he said. “It is kind of a problem. If there was a real emergency we could have a big problem right there.”Williams said he learned from the Illinois Department of Transportation that “a beam” will arrive in July and workers will be able to fix the bridge.“We are in bad shape,” he said.Williams said he’s met with St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern about the bridge problem, and Kern met with state Transportation Department officials.Kern and State Sen. Chris Belt, who represents the area, could not be reached for comment.A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern also could not be reached.Carolyn P. Smith is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.

Source link

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — When Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed his budget for the upcoming fiscal year in February, he sought authority from lawmakers to raise more than $1 billion in revenue through various changes to the state tax code. Among other things, he sought to raise $526 million through extending an expiring cap on losses that corporations can claim on taxes, and $200 million by increasing the tax on sportsbooks’ revenues from 15% to 35%.
But, one of his lead lieutenants this week sent a letter to the head of the state’s agencies instructing them to identify $800 million in collective budget cuts if lawmakers don’t deliver on Pritzker’s tax requests.
“As we continue to work with our General Assembly partners to pass our sixth consecutive balanced budget, it has become clear that opposition to proposed revenue is significant enough to direct agencies to prepare for the possibility of reductions to proposed spending,” Deputy Gov. Andy Manar wrote in the letter to agency directors dated May 7.

While Manar’s letter was addressed to “Agency Directors,” it was just as much a message to rank-and-file lawmakers – particularly those within the supermajority Democratic party. While ideologically aligned on the major points, Democrats have not been immune to intraparty squabbles throughout Pritzker’s tenure.

The letter comes at a time when lawmakers are entering the final two-week negotiating stretch for the budget before their scheduled May 24 adjournment. (It’s a self-imposed deadline, and that date could be extended a week without changing the number of votes needed to pass a budget).

But it doesn’t mean cuts are definitely coming, or that revenues are cratering amid late-year tax season filings.

To the contrary, Manar’s letter came on the heels of positive news – the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget increased its base General Revenue Fund estimate for the upcoming fiscal year 2025 by $295 million, to $53.3 billion.

Normally, that type of revision, at this time of year – coupled with the GOMB’s $250 million increase for the current fiscal year that ends June 30 – would have lawmakers thinking about new spending.

Source: Governor’s Office of Management and Budget

A table from the latest Governor’s Office of Management and Budget report shows how revenue projections have increased from previous estimates. The highlight was added to signify the current revenue estimates.

But in noting there’s at least some question as to whether lawmakers would approve the governor’s February revenue proposals, Manar presented a scenario where the opposite could be true.

“And finally, as your agency prepares for the impact of $800 million in potential spending reductions, please focus on grant programs and other discretionary spending that has increased in recent years,” Manar wrote.

Grant programs are some of the most popular spending areas for lawmakers, many of whom are accustomed to celebrating the impact of the dollars in their districts through celebratory news conferences and media releases.

In other words, the letter lays out a dueling reality for lawmakers who are on the fence: curtail popular program spending or get in line with Pritzker’s proposed plan to make the money available.

Manar’s letter was a subject for discussion on the latest episode of “Illinois Lawmakers” – the longest-running Illinois government-focused program in the state’s history that is now a production of Capitol News Illinois.
Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, the lead budget negotiator in his chamber, told “Lawmakers” host Jak Tichenor Thursday that Manar’s letter was “a good plan” and not cause for alarm as the session nears its end.

“You always have to have contingencies A, B and C,” Sims said, adding that the governor’s plan is option A, but negotiations must also be a “reflection of the caucuses’ priorities.”

“So I just saw the memo as part of that process – part of the planning process to make sure as we get ready for the final passage, we have all the options before us,” he said.

House Assistant Majority Leader Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, echoed Sims, noting Democrats have come together to pass a balanced budget each year since Pritzker took office, resulting in nine credit rating upgrades from the major New York-based rating agencies.

“So we have to continue to work to get that balanced budget,” Hoffman said. “Now – I don’t know that I agree with the deputy governor on having to have all these revenue enhancements in order to have a balanced budget. But we if we have to make some reductions, we’ll make them.”

Jerry Nowicki

/

Capitol News IllinoisJak Tichenor, host of “Illinois Lawmakers,” talks with House Assistant Majority Leader Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea.

Because Pritzker’s revenue generators would pull in an estimated $1.1 billion, there’s room for his plan to pass in part without requiring cuts as drastic as Manar outlined in his Tuesday letter.

Deputy Minority Leader Norine Hammond, R-Macomb, told Tichenor she’s unsurprised by Manar’s letter. The budget ask, she said, has been driven up by competing interest groups all vying for a limited pool of funds.

“And as we know, that becomes a Christmas tree and the revenue needs just become greater and greater,” Hammond said.

But the House GOP’s lead budgeteer also noted her caucus has not been intimately involved in any cross-party budget negotiations thus far.

There are other revenue generators in the governor’s plan as well. It seeks to generate $101 million by capping a sales tax discount claimed by retailers, and to transfer some mass transit costs to the state’s Road Fund to generate $175 million.

Read more: Pritzker agency heads questioned on $1.1 billion revenue proposals

The governor’s office gives far less fanfare to two other proposals: a cap on a widely used personal income tax deduction and a redirection of some tax revenue away from parks and recreation programing.

The former is a $2,550 cap on the standard deduction claimed by millions of Illinoisans to generate $93 million. It was scheduled to grow to $2,775 if lawmakers don’t change the law. The latter would move a portion of real estate transfer taxes to GRF instead of the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development Fund – one of the most popular of all grant programs – to raise $25 million.

Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at an event at the Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday in Springfield. On the same day, his office sent a memo to state agency directors asking them to identify $800 million in budget cuts.

While Manar’s memo lays down a marker for the final two weeks of budget negotiations, it doesn’t drastically change the state’s fiscal landscape from where it was a week ago, when the legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reported April revenues came in about as expected.

In fact, the GOMB’s new estimate is nearly identical to COGFA’s latest projection.

But the letter does indicate that Pritzker’s budget proposal appears to be facing some turbulence as the plane nears its landing – again, not an uncommon occurrence in Springfield.
Jerry Nowicki is the editor-in-chief of Capitol News Illinois, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association. 

Source link

The Missouri legislature passed a $51.7 billion budget Friday, meeting a deadline that at times looked hard to reach.Included in the budget is money for the state K-12 education funding formula, a 3.2% raise for state employees and a 3% increase in funding for the state’s public higher education institutions.The House voted to pass all 16 bills that make up the budget for next year, along with a supplemental budget for the current fiscal year. The process took roughly four hours.Lawmakers had until 6 p.m. Friday to pass the budget. Up until Thursday evening, the budget bills had yet to pass the Senate. The lack of time meant the House and Senate were unable to meet in conference committee to reach a compromise budget.The inability to meet in conference, as well as this year’s budget process, drew the ire of House Democrats, who repeatedly spoke against it.“This is not normal. And it is not transparent. And it is not good government,” said Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis.House Budget Chair Cody Smith said the process this year should not be the norm.“I would posit that it would very well be a different decision next time, and so I’m concerned about the precedent,” said Smith, R-Carthage. “I do feel great about where we’re at here today. But that is not guaranteed if we start to adopt this process.”Speaking after the Senate passed the budget Thursday evening, Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, said it isn’t good policy to have a budget process in which one chamber “beats” the other in terms of priorities.“My goal here was to craft a good fiscally responsible budget with our counterparts in the House. It was not about beating them into submission, because we get the budget later, and the conference committee is heavily weighted in our favor. That’s not what it’s about,” Hough said.Hough also said considering the tight timeline, the final product is good.Sen. John Rizzo, D-Independence, said that he was happy the legislature met its constitutional deadline but that the rushed process could have allowed mistakes.“I think that a lot of times when things are rushed, you could risk a few weeks later finding out that you did something that’s going to call a special session,” Rizzo said.House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said while the budget is technically finished for this year, it is largely incomplete.“All they really did was lowball the estimated costs of several state programs that everyone who is being honest about the situation knows will require substantially more spending authority to fully fund,” Quade said.Quade said this means the legislature will have to fix the budget either in a special session this year or through a supplemental budget bill next year.The budget for the upcoming fiscal year includes $47.5 billion in operations and $4.1 billion in spending on projects funded by the Federal American Rescue Plan Act.States have until the end of this year to fully designate funding from ARPA. They will have through 2026 to spend it all.Some of that money has been used for major improvement projects at colleges and universities, wastewater improvements and local projects.Other spending within the budget included nearly $70 million for the state’s Career Ladder program, which is an optional program that provides teachers with more money, if they take on extra work that would not normally be compensated.It also includes $361 million to fully fund the state’s school transportation commitment.“We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of new money, record money for public education,” said Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel.One of the largest areas of spending for the upcoming year is on transportation. Last year, $2.8 billion was allocated to expand Interstate 70 to three lanes in each direction. This year, the budget contains $727 million for improvements to Interstate 44.“This piece of legislation … represents the single greatest investment in our state’s transportation infrastructure network, I think in the history of the state,” Smith said.Unlike the I-70 expansion, Parson did not request money for I-44, so it’s unclear if he will support it.House Democrats expressed disappointment over what they felt was not enough funding for the state’s department of Health and Senior Services and the Department of Mental Health.Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Manchester, brought up millions of dollars spent on a variety of projects she felt instead could have been allocated for raises for home care workers who help people with disabilities.“We’re OK to fund these projects. But we’re not willing to take people who have disabilities to provide them with the services that they need to function daily,” Lavender said.Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, focused her comments on a lack of raises for workers in the state’s Children’s Division.“We stand here and say, ‘We care about kids, we’re doing enough here for the most vulnerable in our state.’ Well, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Nurrenbern said.No Democrat voted for the bill funding the Department of Health and Seniors Services and Department of Mental Health.Rep. John Black, R-Marshfield, said there is a difference between one-time expenditures and ongoing spending.“We are limited in our expenditures to our income. This budget is based on the state’s anticipated income,” Black said.Quade said the legislature is spending one-time dollars on projects that should be funded through general revenue instead.“We’re doing that because the Republicans continue to cut taxes for the most wealthy in our state and our corporations, and they know that we cannot sustain it,” Quade said.The budget now goes to Parson. Last year, he cut $555.2 million. He cited financial stability as the reason for the vetoes.Speaking on Thursday, before the budget debate began in the Senate, Parson said that without any input from his office, the budget is problematic.Smith said if Parson scrutinized the budget, he would find a lot of items in the budget that have been included in prior years.“They do need to take their time, read the bills, understand the legislation. I’m happy to make myself available to explain legislative intent, as always,” Smith said.

Source link