Below is the government affairs update from Roberta Parks, President of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, dated 6/13/12.

Transportation

We received a summary of what has happened regarding transportation this past legislative session. Some of the highlights include a $1.759 billion dollar appropriation to fund the highway construction program and an additional $817.3 million in Series D bonds. That authorization of bonds should be adequate to complete all of the FY12 and FY13 programs as well as provide $100 million in grants to local units of government. The General Assembly also authorized $799.5 million in additional Series B transit/rail bonds. Issuing these bonds will help raise the funds necessary to help Illinois’ aging infrastructure and improve the means of commerce.

Pension Talks

The Governor and the four legislative leaders are currently working to create a pension reform plan that will work. They held a meeting last week in Chicago and agreed to continue talks, probably sometime next week. Senate President Cullerton’s plan that didn’t deal with teachers or judges pensions, which had passed through the Senate, was rejected as a solution to the pension crisis. Talks have been focusing on the issue of shifting pension costs back to suburban and downstate school districts, the very issue that stopped pension reform in its tracks at the end of the session. It will be interesting to see what sort of compromise develops because, when the governor calls for a special session, the reform legislation will need to garner a 3/5’s super majority in both chambers to pass. When more news develops, we will keep you in the loop.

Smaller Deficit in City

Today’s Peoria Journal Star had an article highlighting that Peoria would face a smaller deficit, just $750,000 as opposed to last year’s $9 million. This budget is also ahead of schedule since some think that this budget could be passed by Halloween, instead of the typical passage date, which is in early December. The smaller deficit is a result of personnel changes that the city underwent last year. However, it is important to note that this is not finally and City Manager Patrick Urich expressed concerns about a contracting tax base.

Food Trucks

We mentioned before that the City was considering an ordinance on food trucks. Last night the ordinance failed to pass. The Chamber did not have a position on this ordinance but we did make sure our restaurant members were aware of the issue and invited to the informational meetings held prior to Council discussion.

Just as an FYI

With the General Assembly out of session at least for awhile, the number of updates will be far less than they have been in April and May. We will still work to keep you abreast of issues of importance and interest. If you receive information that you think would be of interest to other business leaders, please send it to me for possible inclusion in future updates.

If you would like to receive these updates by email, please email Roberta at rparks@chamber.h-p.org and tell her that you would like to be placed on the government affairs email list. For past government affairs updates, click here.