Chamber Board Passes Transportation Resolution

Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce

Board of Directors

September 14, 2016

Resolution of Support for

Illinois Transportation Legislative Initiative

            WHEREAS, transportation infrastructure is critical to the safety, quality of life and economic vitality throughout Illinois; and

            WHEREAS, the transportation system in Illinois is comprised of a seamless network of state highways, county highways, city streets, and township roads, as well as transit, rail and other alternative forms of transportation; and

            WHEREAS, citizens are reliant upon the vast and seamless network of public roads to carry business, products, services, postal delivery, parcel delivery, utilities, school bus, agriculture, emergency services; and,

            WHEREAS, the users of this system of public roads in Illinois pay for the upkeep and improvement of those public roads through highway user fees; and

            WHEREAS, local government is responsible for over 88% of the public road mileage in Illinois carrying 40% of the traffic in the state, thereby contributing 40% of the highway user fees collected by the state, including both motor vehicle revenue paid to the Secretary of State and motor fuel tax paid at the fuel pump; and

            WHEREAS, in 2014 only 21.5% of those highway user fees were returned to reinvest in local roads, which was $577 million less than the 40% generated by local roads, which received $561 million in MFT distributions; and

            WHEREAS, the continual reinvestment of highway user fees in the basic maintenance that is necessary for every part of the highway network is absolutely essential for those benefits of safety, quality of life and economic vitality to continue; and

            WHEREAS, the State of Illinois has not approved a transportation capital program that maintains support of ongoing funding for that continual reinvestment since 1999 and yet local roads in Illinois have experienced costs for basic county highway maintenance in 2014 that were 2.4 times greater than they were in 2000 and those costs continue to climb while local governments are forced to defer and even suspend the most basic maintenance on their local roads; and

            WHEREAS, the number of commercial vehicles along with their sizes and weights continue to grow due to the competitive world market requiring improvements to the local road system to safely accommodate such increase in the number, sizes and weights of commercial vehicles in relation with all other highway users; and

            WHEREAS, it is critical for every local government to improve their local roads in order to continue to be an effective part of the seamless highway network that allows Illinois to supply its produce, products and services to the world market competitively; and

            WHEREAS, the state’s economy continues to face pressures that would be mitigated by a public infrastructure capital construction initiative to provide workers throughout Illinois, from highly urbanized to rural areas, with employment, along with jobs associated with capital infrastructure improvement, such as equipment and material suppliers; and

            WHEREAS, it is important to focus on the entire transportation system, including local and state roads, interstate highways, bridges, public transit, airports, waterways and freight rail because no partial component operates without other systematic elements of the transportation network.

            NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors of the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce does hereby notify the Governor, Legislators and the IDOT Secretary that we request the adoption and implementation of the Illinois Transportation Legislative Initiative to Benefit the Economy and the Citizens of the State of Illinois; and this Illinois Transportation Legislative Initiative specifically requests:

1. The Illinois DOT Secretary will seek input from and collaborate with County Engineers, Municipal Street Officials, Township Highway Commissioners and Transit Officials to develop an Illinois Transportation Plan to immediately begin to address the needs of our Illinois transportation system using the funding distribution of 80% Highways/20% Transit with the highway funding sub split of 60% IDOT/40% Local Roads, distributing formula; and
2. The Governor and General Assembly will adopt and ensure implementation of an Illinois Transportation Bill that requires the distribution of all highway user fees and additional transportation investment at the same funding distribution through the existing MFT distribution formula as identified above.

            BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that upon adoption, signed copies of this resolution shall be forwarded to:

• The Honorable Bruce Rauner, Governor of the State of Illinois

• The Honorable John Cullerton, President of the Illinois Senate

• The Honorable Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives

• The Honorable Christine Radogno, Minority Leader of the Illinois Senate

• The Honorable James Durkin, Minority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives

• The Honorable State Senators & Representatives of our area

• Randy Blankenhorn, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation

PASSED THIS 14^TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2016

/s/  John Franks III, President of the Board of Directors