By Terry James
SPRINGFIELD – It’s estimated that 50 percent of the roads in Illinois need to be fixed.
However, decades of using road funds by state legislators for other projects has left the account short of needed funds.
Spokesman Mark Poulos says Illinois ballots will ask voters if they want to put on a lock on road funds through the Safe Roads Amendment to the Illinois constitution.
“It dates back as far as the 1930’s that this has been going on,” said Poulos. “It was really in the last decade that we started really looking at this a little harder at what the appropriate method was to restrict these funds.”
Poulos says the problem of borrowing from the road fund may be larger than the problem of lawmakers taking from the pension fund.
Terry James can be reached at terry@wjbc.com.
