After months of pondering, Gov. J.B. Pritzker today began briefing state lawmakers on his much-anticipated capital plan, and it’s both big and expensive—$41.5 billion over six years, to be financed in part by a doubling of the state's tax on gasoline.

 

According to background documents obtained by Crain’s, Pritzker wants to pair just under $25 billion in state spending (mostly new, but some reprogrammed) with $10 billion in expected federal funds with $6.6 billion in local and private funds, saying that work is needed because Illinois infrastructure is in “dire” shape.

 

Transportation would get the biggest piece of the pie, with $28.6 billion in anticipated projects, including $23 billion for roads and bridges, $3.4 billion for mass transit, $442 million for the Create freight rail decongestion plan and another billion for other railroad and aviation projects.

 

Environmental and conservation projects would get $1 billion, with $420 million for broadband expansion into under-served areas, mostly downstate, and $711 million for economic development.

 

To pay for that, in a move already being criticized by fiscal conservatives, the state’s motor fuel tax would be doubled on July 1 to 36 cents a gallon for both gasoline and diesel fuel, bringing in $560 million additional a year for the state and $90 million for local government.

 

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