Dear Rep./Sen.

I'm writing to urge you to oppose efforts by Governor Quinn to shift $85.5 million in annual Road Fund money to pay operating subsidies for Amtrak and transit. For years, funding for transit and rail has come from general revenue funds. To take the monies collected specifically for road projects and divert it to transit and rail (both very important parts of Illinois' transportation system) will be extremely detrimental to the roads and bridges throughout the state.

This is the type of diversion of funds used by the Blagojevich administration and we thought that Governor Quinn had ended that practice. This is a dangerous move back to a practice that created many problems for the State of Illinois.

Developing plans for the maintenance and upgrade of our system of roads, highways and bridges requires stability and predictability. The 2009 Capital Program and IDOT's 6-Year Highway Program were the first of its kind for Illinois in years. Plans are well underway on projects – some long overdue – that will add new roads and maintain existing ones while improving safety and the efficient flow of goods.

Diverting $85.5 million in cash now from the FY12 highway program would result in the deferral of four times that amount --more than $340 million--in FY12 highway projects due to the cash flow model used by IDOT. Should this practice continue, the result would be nearly $770 million in projects deferred from IDOT's 6-year program. It's not reasonable to expect Illinois can keep its infrastructure modern and safe – and competitive with its neighbors – if we allow this raid on moneys from the 2009 Capital Program.

Jobs also would be affected at a time when our economy is continuing its slow climb out of a prolonged and deep recession. The number of jobs impacted from the $340 million deferral is in the neighborhood of 9,500. These are high wage construction jobs that won't exist when they are sorely needed to help generate much needed economic activity. Longer term, the impact from the $770 million in deferred projects would be failure to support an estimated 21,000 jobs.

We recognize constraints on the state budget and urge lawmakers to take steps to address it, especially in light of the income tax hike. But at the same time, with our state's long-term vitality at stake, we can't sit by and allow capital funds to be used for operations when it will delay planned and much needed improvements to our state's infrastructure, increase costs of moving goods and services and further erode the public's confidence in the ability of our leaders to deal with critical issues.

We encourage you to maintain the integrity of the current Road Fund and oppose efforts to divert much needed capital resources to operating purposes.

/s/