Oswego Village President Backs State Transportation Bill

OSWEGO, IL — Oswego Village President Gail Johnson has joined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and dozens of other metropolitan leaders in calling for a statewide transportation bill to make road improvements and strengthen mass transit across Illinois. She stopped short, however, of supporting a proposed 20- to 30-cent per gallon hike in the state's gas tax to pay for it.

Johnson said she was present at a news conference in Chicago Tuesday where Emanuel announced the proposal. The Chicago mayor said that two dozen states have raised their gas taxes since 2012, while Illinois' gas tax has remained frozen at 34 cents per gallon since 1990. Illinois "can't wait any longer," he added.

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"For Illinois to maintain its status as the transportation hub of the nation, we need to make major infrastructure investments to support our transportation systems," Emanuel said in a news release. "In addition to critical funding to replace aging roads and bridges, sustained, flexible revenues need to flow directly to public transit. As the backbone of our larger transportation network and a stimulator of economic development, transit needs a dedicated, reliable revenue source so that we can continue to modernize and grow the system."

But some have expressed sticker shock for a rate increase that would almost double the state's gas tax. According to both the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank, and The Heritage Foundation, a conservative one, higher gas taxes can slow the economy and disproportionately harm lower and middle class residents, especially in rural communities where public transportation is lacking. Just this month, weeks of widespread protests in France turned violent after that country's president instituted the equivalent of a 25-cent gas tax increase. That rate hike, scheduled to start in January, has since been rescinded.

Johnson told Patch that a transportation bill is critical for the Chicago Metropolitan area and for Oswego, specifically, but stressed that she is not advocating any specific revenue source to fund it at this time.

"I am confident that our legislators in Springfield will make the right choices when it comes to providing funding for this bill," she said. "When it comes to transportation, we must always be cognizant of the impacts of our actions as well as our inaction. Those who have less are almost always impacted more by our decisions."

During the Tuesday news conference, Emanuel was joined by Johnson and other members of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, which represents 275 communities and more than 9 million residents in northeastern Illinois.

"All funding options need to be on the table," said Park Forest Mayor John Ostenburg and chairman of the Mayors Caucus in a statement. "Revenue sources that have traditionally funded roads and transit in the past can support our needs today. However, with the continued emergence of new transportation technologies, they won’t last long. We need to have the courage and foresight to experiment and pilot new sources of revenue for infrastructure."

Johnson said that Oswego is working to bring one important new piece of infrastructure — Metra — to Kendall County and money from a Capital Bill or Transportation Bill will be critical to that effort.

"That is why I lent my support to the Transportation Bill in Chicago today," she said.

Emanuel added that electric car owners should not be exempt from contributing to the improvements, but he did not specify how they would be taxed.

Editor's note: The Chicago mayor's office published a list of mayors supporting the initiative Tuesday, but has since removed all of the mayors' names from the list after pushback at the local level. Like Johnson, it seems Emanuel took the support of many of those previously listed out of context. This story has been updated to reflect that.

Photo by Renee Schiavone/Patch