University awaits governor's OK for capital plan

More than $85.9 million for university construction projects is sitting on the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn, awaiting his final approval.

The Illinois House of Representatives approved a capital construction plan worth $26 billion Thursday less than 24 hours after it passed out of the Senate. Included in the plan is $56.7 million for the construction of the proposed Transportation Education Center and the last $17.6 million needed to complete Morris Library’s renovation.

“For all of us in Illinois, it’s a great move forward,” SIUC Chancellor Sam Goldman said of the capital plan’s passage through the Legislature. “The infrastructure of the entire state has been falling apart badly.”

Quinn has said he would not approve the capital plan until the Legislature addresses the state’s operations budget and ethics legislation. The House is scheduled to vote on the operations budget on May 31.

Goldman said the library money would allow crews to finish renovating the building’s sixth and seventh floors and move materials still in the McLafferty Annex to the library’s shelves.

The transportation center would relocate the automotive school from its deteriorating facilities in Carterville to a new complex at Southern Illinois Airport in conjunction with the School of Aviation.

Jack Greer, chairman of the automotive school, said the center is a shovel-ready project that has been in the works since 1996.

Greer said he expects the school’s Carterville facilities— metallic bunkers built in 1938 — to last three more years before costly renovations would be needed.

“The university would just have to put more money in the buildings,” he said. “You hate to put $20,000 in a building and then move out in a year. That just doesn’t make sense.”

David NewMyer, chairman of the aviation school, said the transportation center’s future now rests in the hands of higher-up university officials and the state’s Capital Development Board.

The capital plan would also give the university more than $7.3 million for deferred maintenance and $4.3 million to plan an overhaul and addition of 60,000 square feet to the Communications Building.

Springfield lawmakers were entrenched in a political war with one another for the last seven years to approve a major capital plan. Although lawmakers did not publicly question the need for a capital plan, they could not agree on how to finance it or whether former Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be trusted to distribute the money as it was intended.

The plan calls for multiple state tax and fee increases. Vehicle registration and driver’s licenses would cost an extra $20, obtaining a car title would cost another $30 and the tax on bottles of liquor and wine would go up 13 cents.

Bar owners and fraternal groups would be allowed to introduce video poker machines in their establishments, and gamblers could buy state lottery tickets online with the proceeds benefiting the state.

Last year’s proposed gambling expansion hit a brick wall in the House with legislators saying they could not support gaming as a righteous and reliable revenue source.

State Sen. David Luechtefeld, a Republican from Okawville, said the capital plan’s benefits to southern Illinois outweighed his concerns about using taxes and gambling as a revenue stream.

“Certainly the taxes in an economy that is struggling are never easy,” Luechtefeld said. “Video gaming is a very questionable thing sometimes. It always has been for me, but it’s your only vote; your only opportunity.”

State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Carbondale, said he also voted in favor of the revenue streams even though he is not a supporter of gaming.

“The reality is that we must have many of these projects done and the benefit to SIU is tremendous in itself,” he said.

Bost said legislators also have more trust in the governor’s office now that Blagojevich is no longer there.

SIU President Glenn Poshard said the capital plan survived this year because of Blagojevich’s removal from office and the retirement of last year’s Senate President Emil Jones, who was known as Blagojevich’s top legislative ally.

“We finally had a governor and all four legislative leaders working together and that made all of the difference,” Poshard said. “We did not have that last year.”

Once the governor approves the capital plan, Poshard said bond sales would begin to support campus construction.

Daily Egyptian reporter Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 263 or barton.lorimor@siude.com.