We’ve been seeing many news reports
lately that Gov. Rod Blagojevich thinks he can pass a massive $3
billion road- and school-construction plan this year. But Senate
Republican Leader Frank Watson is throwing cold water on much of
this speculation. An article last week in Crain’s Chicago Business suggested that a deal may be near on the $3 billion
program. Watson was quoted saying that he could support funding it
with a $175 million “windfall” from increased
gasoline-sales-tax revenues and a tax increase on cigarettes. But a spokeswoman for the Senate GOP leader
plays down the comments. “He didn’t say anything
new,” says Patty Schuh in an e-mail. “We’ve
always been for [a capital program] but it’s got to be done
right.” Schuh also says that Watson’s support
for using the gasoline-sales-tax revenue is not new and noted that
Watson said that he’d look at increasing the cigarette tax
last year. Senate President Emil Jones blocked that particular
idea, and he hasn’t indicated that he’s changed his
mind, which puts a big roadblock in front of Watson’s idea.
(Jones, a smoker, just underwent angioplasty surgery, so it’s
possible that he’ll look at things differently in the near
future.) Rumors have circulated for months about a
possible capital deal. In May, Blagojevich privately suggested
holding a special legislative session to force the issue, but that
plan was rejected by the two Democratic leaders, Jones and House
Speaker Michael Madigan. Then, about September, more rumors flew
about a possible special session, but those turned out to be false.
Every few weeks since then, including the days before the fall veto
session, the rumor mill has ground out capital-program talk, but
all of it has been wrong. The problem for Blagojevich is that new borrowing
requires a three-fifths majority in both legislative chambers. He
can’t pass anything without Republican support, and, for various
reasons, they haven’t been cooperating. Jones and Madigan have already signed off on a
capital-projects deal, but there is resistance to Watson’s
idea of using the increased sales-tax revenue to pay for it. The
Legislature’s revenue-forecasting arm has noted that the
increased consumer spending on gasoline could very well be offset
by less spending on other things, which would offset the increased
gasoline-sales-tax receipts. In other words, there’s only so
much money out there at any given time. The political game is pretty obvious. Watson
is under pressure from some Republicans to prevent Blagojevich from
winning any big new spending program before this year’s
election. “Starving” an administrator’s budget is
a tried-and-true political strategy, and the Republicans have used
it against Blagojevich whenever they could for the past couple of
years. The Senate Republicans have said that they
won’t back a new bonding program unless they receive solid
assurances that they won’t be cut out of the deal. The
governor has a history of not keeping his word in Springfield, so
they want a projects list and a solemn vow in advance. If the governor agrees to a list of projects
and the program passes, he’ll be able to visit those
construction sites throughout the campaign season. That
“victory lap” would allow Blagojevich to rebut
Republican claims that he is a woefully ineffective governor who
can’t get things done. If the program doesn’t pass,
Blagojevich and the Democrats could use that list against Senate
Republican candidates and incumbents. Good sources say that Watson is under
increasing pressure from road builders and other natural GOP
constituents to support a capital plan. At least some of his own
members are feeling the same heat, plus pressure from local
constituents who want the jobs and benefits from road-, bridge-,
and school-construction projects. Watson worked hard last year to pry the
construction-trade unions away from the Democrats after Jones tried
to strip away their control of apprenticeship programs and shift it
to the state. If Watson continues to be seen as blocking a
capital-projects bill, however, his move on the unions could be
jeopardized. Whatever happens, Watson doesn’t want to
publicly look responsible for killing a $3 billion projects plan.
Whether he’ll go the extra mile to get it passed is still
unknown. The governor’s people appear to believe that they
can persuade Watson to come on board and are starting to gin up
media reports that a deal is percolating. Stay tuned.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2006.
