Faced with an untenable multi-billion dollar budget deficit he inherited from his Democratic predecessor, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed an executive order as one of his first acts in office halting any major interstate highway construction projects, including the proposed 57-mile Illiana Expressway connecting I-55 and I-65, a toll road project Indiana and Illinois planned to undertake jointly.
Gov. Mike Pence foolishly supports the project he inherited from Gov. Mitch Daniels, a privately-undertaken project backed with state highway dollars that is guaranteed to fail when it generates inadequate toll revenues but certain to make big bucks for campaign contributors. Perhaps Gov. Pence should use this time to do some reflecting and use his brain for once instead of doing what he's told to do by his campaign contributors.
4 comments:
Rauner is engaged in a turf war. Illiana will be an economic driver for NW Indiana, and Rauner is trying to keep all the business on his side of the State Line.
Chicago expressways are cramped and underbuilt. Illinois is at the top of states shedding population. Driving even a few miles in Chicago can take a very painful hour.
Good roads are a quality of life issue. The real money savings in Illinois will come from defaulting on police pensions. We'll see if Rauner has the guts to go after the greatest source of bloat in the budget.
Illinois taxpayers should not be on the hook for a comfortable lifetime income for Illinois' meter maids.
In clarification of the above, Illiana should be built, but it should be built as an untolled road.
Au contraire, anon. 10:19. The Illiana Expressway is all about that third airport Illinois wants to build out in the corn fields near Peotone.
Well, Rauner can be wrong about that. The third airport needs to be Gary. We can let him think he'll get another airport, but Gary makes more sense.
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