State government plays an important role in maintaining the physical infrastructure of Illinois and the City of Chicago. Even though the General Assembly is confronted with a State Capital Budget document every year, there is little public input, scrutiny, or strategic planning associated with its passage. From time to time, the State undertakes a major investment program to assist local government in footing the bill for infrastructure repairs and construction. Illinois FIRST, enacted in 1999, was the most recent and most ambitious of these programs.

The State built and now is responsible for maintaining a wide array of bridges and roads. State agencies, primarily the Illinois Department of Transportation, works with cities and towns on infrastructure projects. Chicago has many major streets that were originally built as state roads.  Now known as "Strategic Major Arterial" streets, these roads now run through Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, and connect our ever-expanding sprawling urbanized areas.  Usually the State and the local city or town will enter into an agreement to share the cost of maintaining or rebuilding these roads, as well as some bridges. But Illinois does not have a good track record on capital budgeting or sustained public works investment.

Major State initiatives to create new investment in infrastructure have been few and far between. 

In 1988, under Illinois Governor James R. Thompson, the Illinois General Assembly approved financing for a modest $2 billion statewide public works program. In less than two years, that money was  "spoken for" - claimed by Chicago, smaller towns and cities, and major agencies like the Regional Transportation Authority, to help them pay for capital improvement projects, or leverage federal grants for infrastructure projects.

It took another decade before State legislators could be convinced to raise revenues to help repair Illinois' crumbling infrastructure.

What is Illinois FIRST?

In 1999, the Illinois General Assembly approved a 5-year statewide public works program, called "Illinois FIRST - "Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools & Transit."

Governor George Ryan called it a $12 billion program to rebuild the State's crumbling infrastructure. But in reality the program only raises $6.3 billion in new state revenues from higher fees and taxes. The Governor's figure counts the dollars that could eventually be invested, if local agencies and the federal government fully match the new State funds.  For instance, for school construction money, a local school board must raise $1.00 locally to match every $1.00 of State "Illinois FIRST" money that it requests.

How are we paying for Illinois FIRST?

The final agreement among state politicians on how to generate the $6.3 billion sum was not easily won.  There was controversy over the fairness of various tax and fee increases.  Eventually, the State legislators agreed to increase numerous taxes and fees, cobbling together revenue from more than 30 different sources to finance Illinois FIRST.

The best known increase was the cost of Illinois license plates - raised from $48 to $75/year.  But liquor taxes, along with dozens of other minor fees and surcharges were increased slightly to reach the revenue goal that Governor Ryan had set.  So, every Chicago and Illinois household is helping to pay for Illinois FIRST.

Illinois FIRST is NOT primarily a grant program, where the State gives out the revenue it takes in.  Instead, the State is using most of the new revenues to issue bonds.  In other words, the State will borrow money to spend now (between 2000 and 2004).  This debt will be paid off gradually with the revenues it will collect from the dedicated taxes and fees every year for the next __ (is it 20 or 30?) years.

Illinois FIRST has been controversial because the Illinois General Assembly linked members' initial support for the program to annual appropriations  for discretionary "member initiative" spending items, which often were not capital improvements.  These expenditures soon earned the Illinois FIRST label, even though technically, they were not drawn down from the borrowed funds authorized by the public works program, but rather, came from the State's general funds.  Legislators clearly thought that having voted for Illinois FIRST, they deserved these annual discretionary appropriations.  As the State's budget deficit grew to crisis proportions by 2002, and human and social services got the ax, these discretionary spending appropriations somehow survived in spite of widespread public criticism.  The net effect was to give public works spending a bad name, and Illinois FIRST has been viewed negatively by the media and many citizens because of this association.