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Mayor talks road funds with Blagojevich
Aaron Chambers Register Star
"Quite frankly, I don't think in the past a mayor ever
came down and said as forcefully as we just said exactly what we said: that
we're not going to settle for more excuses like we've gotten in the past,"
Morrissey said after a meeting with Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
In closed-door meetings with Blagojevich and House Speaker
Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, Morrissey said he pushed to boost the share of road
dollars doled out to
The mayor said his staff would work closely with the Illinois
Department of Transportation in coming days to assess how to improve
Indeed, state Transportation Secretary Tim Martin said he
has little room to negotiate within the confines of the state's road program.
IDOT determines the program's specific priorities, but its breadth is
determined by the funding granted by lawmakers.
"I can't put a new project in unless somebody kills an
old one," said Martin, who joined Morrissey's meeting with Blagojevich.
Blagojevich last spring proposed a $2.1 billion capital
construction program, called Opportunity Returns, that included $116 million
for Rockford-area projects.
The plan's Senate GOP opponents -- including Dave Syverson
of Rockford, Brad Burzynski of Clare and Todd Sieben of Geneseo -- complained
that the governor failed to show how the state would pay for borrowing
necessary to finance the plan.
They also noted that the governor has refused to release
certain member-initiative grants, and said they didn't trust him to honor
additional commitments.
Morrissey, who ran as an independent in the April mayoral
election, ousted incumbent Doug Scott amid questions about whether the
Democrat's personal connections to the Democratic governor and other state
officials actually benefited Rockford.
Scott, director of the state Environmental Protection
Agency, frequently visited the Capitol as mayor. In the days leading up to the
mayoral election, Blagojevich and Madigan suggested Rockford's clout would
suffer without Scott in the mayor's office.
As he departed the Capitol Thursday, Morrissey brushed aside
a question about whether tension underscored his meetings with Blagojevich and
Madigan.
"What we've got are two professionals who want to get
progress done," he said. "They understand that the mayor of the city
of Rockford, no matter who it is, is the leader of a region of close to 300,000
people. They recognize that. Plus, Speaker Madigan is a Notre Dame guy, so we
had that in common."
Contact: achambers@rockford.gannett.com; 217-782-2959