Rauner Authorizes More Illiana Spending to “Wind Down” Project

Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill last week that authorizes spending $5.5 million more on the Illiana Tollway, a month after he announced he was suspending the project.

The Illiana would have been a new highway a couple miles south of the existing Chicago metropolitan region that would have encouraged suburban sprawl. Tolls would have been high enough that the road would have likely seen little use, but taxpayers would have been on the hook for covering revenue shortfalls as part of a public-private partnership. Ex-governor Pat Quinn, who was fighting for his political life at the time, pushed hard for the Illiana, hoping that support from Southland legislators and voters would help him win reelection.

Crain's Chicago columinst Greg Hinz reported that the $5.5 million is for to pay consultants to "wind down" contracts and for covering litigation fees. A Rauner aide told Hinz that the fact that Rauner has authorized the expenditure doesn't necessarily mean the Illinois Department of Transportation will spend the money.

While this development doesn't necessarily mean there's a backroom conspiracy to keep the Illiana on life-support, some of the text in the measure is a bit fishy. The bill says that the money is going to IDOT to "enable the Illiana Expressway to be developed, financed, constructed, managed, or operated in an entrepreneurial and business-like manner."

Howard Learner, president of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which has sued IDOT twice over the Illiana, told Hinz that Rauner is not keeping his June 2 promise to "[suspend] all existing project contracts and procurements" related to the project. "It's time to bring the wasteful Illiana tollway gravy train for consultants to an end," Learner said. "These public funds should instead be used to meet our state's high-priority needs."

The most recent stake in the heart of the tollway was when a district court ruling invalidated the project's federally required Environmental Impact Statement. The judge noted that IDOT's justification for the highway was based on circular logic. The department argued that more road capacity is needed because new residents will be moving to the area. However, IDOT's projection was based on the assumption that the tollway would be built, which would have encouraged development sprawl. However, IDOT could potentially rewrite the EIS to pass muster.

Moreover, even though Rauner has ordered IDOT to stop all work and take the tollway off their current Transportation Improvement Program plan, the boondoggle can still be legally built. It's still included in GO TO 2040, the region’s comprehensive plan, administered by Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

CMAP's board has voted against building the Illiana. However, under heavy pressure from Quinn, the agency's Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee has twice voted to promote the highway to a primary projects list. To ensure that the misbegotten tollway proposal does not rise zombie-like from the grave, the MPO committee needs to vote to demote it from that list.