Bill Text: IL SB0789 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Veto Message
Bill Title: Amends the Illinois Highway Code. Provides that a county board of any county, any township, or any municipality may use motor fuel tax funds allotted to it for the operation costs of any public transportation service, for capital improvements designed to improve or enhance pedestrian, bicycle, or transit mobility, or for infrastructure used to support publicly or privately owned electric vehicles.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Failed) 2017-11-08 - Total Veto Stands [SB0789 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2017-SB0789-Veto_Message.html
August 18, 2017
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois Senate,
100th General Assembly:
Today I veto Senate Bill 789, which expands the authorized uses of motor fuel tax funds.
This bill would allow for these funds to be directed away from traditional infrastructure projects toward other tangential transportation initiatives including those capital projects focused on pedestrian, bicycle, or electrical vehicles as well as for the operation costs of public transit.
Illinois should be the most modern and effective transportation center in the nation. Instead, we see crumbling roads and bridges across our state. The motor fuel tax is intended as a use tax for the privilege of utilizing these common resources, and the revenue it generates should be focused on funding the pressing renovation and innovation that our infrastructure needs.
Unfortunately, Illinois does not currently have the funds necessary to support every initiative, and by expanding the number of uses to which motor vehicle funds can be directed, this legislation will pull resources from their most appropriate and needed uses. Some of the capital projects that would be eligible for motor fuel funds under this bill are already heavily subsidized by government and others are simply outside the scope of the use tax’s intent.
Therefore, pursuant to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 789, entitled “AN ACT concerning transportation”, with the foregoing objections, vetoed in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Bruce Rauner
GOVERNOR
