Counterpoint: State needs to pay bills, not create more deficit
Karina Swank
Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Opinion
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Illinois is paying $313 million to fund the New Mississippi River Bridge Project compared to Missouri's $115 million and the Federal contribution of $239 million.
A pro for the creation of this additional bridge is that it will create jobs and thus generate money, which will find its way back to the state and the cycle continues. Paying off bills the state already owes does the same thing. Doesn't the state of Illinois have a responsibility to pay what it owes before it starts new projects?
For example, SIUE is owed $127 million from the state. Technically speaking SIUE could spend another $43 million, according to original state appropriations but have not spent. This means that $43 million of potential spending money is not finding its way back into the market. It is being halted because of unpaid state bills.
If new jobs are created, who is to say that money will be returned to Illinois at the same ratio Illinois is paying for the bridge. Will more jobs be generated for Missouri compared to Illinois? Illinois is in a worse economic situation and has a larger investment in this bridge to begin with, so taxpayers have to consider if the gamble is worth it.
Illinois should not be focused on creating more jobs, but instead focused on keeping the ones we already have. Education, as we know all too well, has taken a huge hit during this recession. Grade schools and high schools have had to cut jobs and cut down on services offered. The university is in peril not of being able to pay its employees each month and it has gotten to the point where they have to take out loans because they cannot put their faith in the state. We should be focusing on education like Gov. Quinn has said over and over again in his campaign speeches, though his actions are speaking differently.
One of the reasons former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal worked was because it gave the people faith in their government. It made it seem that the government was going to take care of and take responsibility for the good of their constituents. With so many unpaid bills, I'm not sure how much faith taxpayers can have in the government and its decisions. Some scholars would point out that the New Deal did not solve the problems of the Great Depression, but that World War II created a better economic situation. Obviously we shouldn't go to war, but I think this shows that the New Deal did not solve all our problems.
There are also other ways to solve the traffic and congestion problem that they say this new bridge will solve until the state has the ability to fund a completely new bridge. But until then, I don't mind sitting in some traffic if it means my education continues and my friends and family can keep the jobs they already have.
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