The Multimodal Opportunities Via Enhanced Freight Act of 2013 (MOVE Freight Act) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 5, 2013.  This bill would amend the freight provisions of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21 st Century (MAP-21), the two-year transportation reauthorization bill passed last summer.  Intended to strengthen MAP-21’s national freight... Read More

On March 6, 2013, Governor Quinn delivered his annual budget address to a joint meeting of the General Assembly. The Governor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 (FY14) totals $62.4 billion for all revenue funds, of which $35.6 billion is for the General Revenue Fund (GRF). The proposed GRF amount exceeds the revenue spending cap of $35.08 billion that was approved by the Illinois... Read More

The Elgin O’Hare Western Access (EOWA) project is on a short list of fiscally-constrained major capital projects identified in GO TO 2040.  It includes three main components: 1.      Reconstructing the existing Elgin O'Hare Expressway and adding an additional lane in each direction. 2.      Extending the Elgin O'Hare... Read More

On March 6, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 933 , a resolution to fund the federal government through September 2013.  The resolution would maintain FY 2012 funding levels for federal programs, minus the spending cuts required under “sequestration,” which put $1.2 trillion of automatic, across-the-board cuts into effect on March 1.  The federal budget is... Read More

Manufacturing accounts for a disproportionate component of the nation’s innovative activity: While it makes up only 11 percent of GDP, 90 percent of all the nation’s patents relate to manufacturing. In Illinois the link between manufacturing and innovation is even more pronounced. Nationwide 68 percent of all private research and development (R&D) spending comes from manufacturing firms;... Read More