'Uncertain Future' For State Transportation

This year's road construction faces an uncertain future if Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-controlled General Assembly don't agree to authorize transportation spending by the end of June, according to the Illinois State Journal-Register as well as representatives of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition.

"The budget impasse has really put all sorts of funding at risk, but transportation is unique in that we are very time sensitive even more so I would say than education, which has gotten an awful lot of attention," Todd Maisch, president and CEO of the Illinois Transportation Center and co-chairman of the coalition, said during a news conference Thursday.

Approximately $1.8 billion is required this year, with about 80 percent coming from federal sources.

According to  Michael Kleinik, executive director of the Chicago Laborers District Council, without the state authorizing this spending, there will be an immediate loss of 25,000 middle class jobs and cost taxpayers $3 million a day to keep motorists safe around closed construction sites.