Matching funds bill suggested

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Cook and the collar counties would be able to sock away their gas and new public safety sales taxes to match federal funds for road projects, should a new House bill become law.

State Rep. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake, has introduced House Bill 6655, which would create the state Local Transportation Match Fund. If approved, the counties individually will be able to elect to divert both sales taxes into the Illinois Department of Transportation-managed fund to help acquire federal matches unattainable because of the state's budget crunch and the lack of a capital plan.

Once that funding materialized, IDOT then would reimburse the counties for whatever projects they matched. Tryon said this would at least allow counties to get started on projects until a capital bill was passed  the Legislature adjourned Friday for the summer without approving one.

"Even with or without a capital plan, this is good government policy," Tryon said Monday.

See MATCHING FUNDS, page 7A

"If we're taxing people for transportation, [counties] ought to be taking all tax dollars for roads and using them for federal matches," he said.

But after years of inaction in Springfield, McHenry County has its own plan for the sales taxes and likely will stick to it.

The law would allow the McHenry County Board, if it so chose, to direct its sales tax of 4 cents a gallon of unleaded gasoline for the fund, as well as the new quarter-percent transportation and public safety sales tax imposed by the Legislature as part of its controversial Regional Transportation Authority bailout.

The bill was assigned to the Rules Committee before the Legislature adjourned for the summer. Tryon, who introduced the bill Friday, said he anticipated getting enough momentum to pass it during the fall veto session in November, rather than next January.

Federal matches unclaimed for area projects cited by Tryon include a full Interstate 90-Route 47 interchange in Huntley and the Algonquin bypass.

However, with nine years gone by since Springfield last approved a capital plan, the McHenry County Board has decided to fund much-needed improvements itself. U.S. News & World Report last year ranked the county in the top 10 most congested in the nation.

The board last year borrowed $50 million to fund road improvements, using its motor-fuel taxes to pay back the bonds. And the county's tentative plan for the new RTA sales tax is to borrow another $60 million to $70 million for more road work, said Finance and Audit Committee Chairman Marc Munaretto, R-Algonquin.

Munaretto said he had not yet seen Tryon's bill but said he would be very suspect of diverting county sales taxes to an IDOT fund in hopes of one day getting it back.

The Senate last week approved Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposed $34 billion "Illinois Works" capital plan, which would be funded through expanding gambling and privatizing the state lottery. But procedural votes in the House stalled the plan.

Blagojevich said he wanted to meet with legislative leaders this week to balance the last-minute budget and possibly include the capital bill. The last state capital bill was Illinois FIRST, which was approved in 1999.