Southtown Star: Quinn asks mayors to save Illiana
In a final push to save the Illiana Expressway, Gov. Pat Quinn urged area mayors and legislators to personally contact members of a metropolitan planning committee who will cast a crucial vote on the project Thursday.
After speaking Monday to a crowd of more than 400 at a Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Tinley Park, Quinn invited about 40 public officials (including about two dozen Southland mayors and state legislators) into a separate meeting in a private room at the convention center where he talked to them for about an hour.
Several of the mayors later told me that it was a wide-ranging discussion that included the South Suburban Airport, gambling and the general lack of economic development in the Southland.
The governor made it clear, however, that he wanted those present to personally contact anyone they knew on the 19-member Chicago Metropolitan Organization policy committee, which will vote Thursday on whether the Illiana Expressway should be built…Please click here to read Phil Kadner’s column in the Southtown Star.
ABC 7 News: What’s holding up pension reform in Illinois?
Illinois lawmakers head back to Springfield in about a week, but there’s still no bill to fix the state’s pension crisis. As Gov. Pat Quinn worked the room at the Southland Chamber Of Commerce luncheon, the state’s $100 billion unfunded pension debt was on his mind. “It’s a matter of highest concern for everybody in Illinois,” Gov. Quinn said…Please click here to read or view Charles Thomas’ story on ABC 7 News.
NWI Times: Quinn underlines support for Illiana Expressway
Gov. Pat Quinn declared himself an ally of Chicago’s south suburbs Monday, offering municipalities road repair funds while also reiterating his support for the Illiana Expressway project. Quinn appeared before the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce to tout the expressway to connect Interstate 65 near Lowell to Interstate 55 near Wilmington. Last week, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning rejected including the Illiana in its long-term plan. A more critical vote by CMAP’s Metropolitan Planning Organization arm is set Thursday. “Our intention is to get a ‘yes’ vote,” Quinn said. “We have to make this happen.”…Please click here to read Gregory Tejeda’s story in the Times.
Daily Journal: Quinn throws support behind Illiana
Those who call a proposed Illiana Expressway a “highway in nowhere land” have a “know nothing” approach. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said that Monday as he spoke before a crowd of 300 at the Chicago Southland Chamber Regional Consensus luncheon. Quinn was the keynote speaker for the annual event at the Tinley Park Convention Center. Quinn said the Illiana, which would link interstates 65, 57 and 55, would be vital for future job growth, helping to spur the intermodal industry, the method of railroading containers of goods into the center of Illinois and then transferring them to trucks. “We are the heart of the heartland,” Quinn said of the state’s key location…Please click here to read By Phil Angelo’s story in the Kankakee Daily Journal.
Press release from the office of Gov. Quinn:
Please click here for a full list of South Suburban communities that were awarded $2,642,551 in Illinois Jobs Now! funds.
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