The harvest emergency announced by Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday is only the second one ever enacted, but its practical effects will repeat annually without such a declaration beginning next year.

 

The emergency status enables the Illinois Department of Transportation to issue free permits to farmers and crop haulers allowing them to surpass gross vehicle and gross axle weight limits during the harvest season. A bill signed into law Aug. 25 will automatically enact the measures each harvest season beginning in 2019.

 

Rauner declared the first harvest emergency in 2017 and said the declarations and new law will allow Illinois farmers and haulers to compete more effectively with counterparts in neighboring states that also automatically ease the hauling restrictions for those working with agricultural commodities each fall.

 

“We have heard from Illinois’ trucking industry and from farmers who are operating on thin profit margins in today’s agricultural climate,” Rauner said in prepared remarks. “Today’s harvest emergency declaration recognizes that the weight-restriction structure in place in Illinois put our farmers and truckers at a disadvantage.

 

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