Missouri and Illinois govs meet today; Quinn presses for tax hike
Quinn
Nixon
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled to meet with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon this afternoon in St. Louis. The agenda is about both leaders promoting a high-speed rail corridor from St. Louis to Chicago. But for Quinn, it’s part of a broader campaign to pressure state lawmakers to approve his proposed state income tax hike when they return to Springfield Tuesday.
No venue is too pristine for the tactic, it seems. Quinn even brought it up at a Springfield event earlier today honoring Illinois regional champions who competed in the Scripps Annual National Spelling Bee. As Quinn presented the kids with plaques, he asked each of them to spell words which, he said, were “common to Illinois.”
“Gridlock,” Quinn read to one child, then proceeded to define it for him: “Any situation in which nothing can move.”
Quinn says that’s what’s happening in the Legislature, and that care for the disabled and other human services statewide will suffer if lawmakers don’t come together and approve the tax hike to erase what the administation says is a $9.3 billion budget hole in the coming fiscal year.
The Legislature adjourned for the summer last month without approving full funding for the state budget year that starts July 1. The problem is that they don’t want to approve the two-year temporary income tax hike (from 3 percent to 4.5 percent) that Quinn says is crucial to balancing the budget, but no one’s come up with another idea that would solve the problem.
Quinn has called lawmakers back to Springfield in special session Tuesday to deal with the budget and other issues.
Talking with reporters after the Springfield event, Quinn continued to predict that lawmakers will come around now that they’re hearing about the potentially devastating impact on human services if the budget crisis isn’t solved. Just to make sure, human services workers, clients and union members are planning mass demonstrations Tuesday in Springfield, the Metro East and other arteas to coincide with the start of the special session.
Quinn and Nixon meet at 3 p.m. today at the St. Louis Amtrak Gateway Station.
Kevin, I was wondering if you knew the scope of the high speed rail proposal being floated for CHI-STL? I know that in America, “high speed” rail is considered anything over 90mph, while it is a somewhat higher standard in Europe (at least 125mph, I believe). That said, many of the European trains get up to 180-200mph, so I was wondering what we could be expecting here? 90mph versus 200mph is quite a big difference, but the higher end of that would almost certainly make rail the most efficient mode of transportation to get to CHI.
My understanding is that - according to the HSR - plan “high-speed” is 125mph … and up.
France’s TGV has running at 200mph+ for more than 20 years.
The HSR nationwide project has 2 components:
1. upgrading the current infrastructure, as to reach 125mph speed in some areas ($8 Billion for the initial phase)
2. $1B per year over the nbext 5 years ($5 Billion total) for initial feasibility studies for ‘real’ high-speed services in selected ‘corridors’.
There are 10 of these - and the Midwest one is reputedly among the top favorites.
I wonder how Illinois can afford to have that service when it is cutting programs left and right. They need 7 billion dollars for next year’s budget. They are not able to meet that much and are cutting schools, programs, services and other budget costs. Perhaps they need to put this on back burner. First they need to make the budget solvent to the needs of Illinoisians.
The U.S. seriously needs to improve its rail system. We can’t keep pouring money into our highways when there are less pollutive methods of transport readily available.
Obama-Lahood plan: $13 billion over 5 years for 110 mph upgrades on a set of regional networks. It is a solid beginning for planning and upgrading Amtrak
John Mica - James Oberstar plan: AKA The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009, a bipartisan resolution that will give $50 billion for High Speed Rail and $98 billion for other public transit development to feed into these high-speed rail corridors - it also fully funds maintenance and planned upgrades for the interstate highway system, all over the next 6 years. This is what we will butter our bread with.
Guess which one I am frantically writing congressmen, senators, the president, the transportation secretary, state legislators, mayors, governors, family, friends, and pets in support of? Write your elected officials and get this act passed, it is a win-win proposal.
I assume the conversation between Nixon and Quinn went something like this…
Nixon: “Our state is broke.”
Quinn: “Our state is more broke than yours.”
Nixon: “Hey, let’s lobby for a high-speed rail line between STL and Chicago.”
Quinn: “Great idea!! Where will we get the money?”
Nixon: “Let’s see if the Feds will give it to us?
Quinn: “Another great idea. Aren’t they broke as well?”
Nixon: “Yeah, but they can always print more money.”
Quinn: “Man you Missouri folks sure are smart.”