SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday told members at an Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association luncheon in Springfield that he’ll seek to invest “billions and billions” of dollars in infrastructure.
Rauner said he wants to allow local governments to remedy the issue of prevailing-wage and public-labor requirements, but that he wants to fund the construction via savings through municipal right-to-work legislation and moving state workers to a less-expensive pension system – something he said would save the state $2.7 billion in the first year.
Observers of the speech have noted, however, that as Rauner praised “right to work” zones and trashed PLAs and prevailing wage laws and repeatedly asked the Pavers to help him pass his legislative agenda, not a single attendee applauded
Rauner described the state’s bidding process as not competitive and said it’s holding back the state from investing more in infrastructure spending.
The governor did not mention any ideas for new revenue to fund the infrastructure improvements, such as raising the gas tax or instituting a sales tax on some services.
He said he thought he could enact his agenda to fix the state’s infrastructure with only six bills, although he did not specify if the legislation had been introduced or by whom.