County board gives final OK to high-speed rail resolution
Updated 9:10 p.m.
URBANA — The Champaign County Board is now on record in support of Midwest high-speed rail, calling on Congress to “include a program to develop an integrated network of high-speed trains and expanded Amtrak service in the upcoming transportation authorization.”
The board voted 15-8 for the resolution. Republicans Jonathan Schroder and Brad Jones joined with all the board’s Democrats in support of the resolution.
Supporters argued that high-speed rail would be an economic development boost for the nation, the state and Champaign County.
Champaign Democrat Michael Richards said private investors are interested in American high-speed rail.
But Republicans suggested the state and federal governments’ fiscal woes made the project impossible.
“We don’t have the money, folks. It’s not there,” said St. Joseph area Republican Aaron Esry.
“I can’t vote for this,” said Champaign Republican Alan Nudo. “We’re in too much debt now. We’ve got to dig out of this morass we’re in.”
An alternative motion calling for a high-speed rail system funded by the private sector with minimal impact on agriculture and emergency services was rejected both by Democratic and Republican board members.
Earlier Thursday, the executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association said in Champaign that a high speed rail route through Champaign would have “a transformative effect” on the community.
He said the 220-mph trains could go from downtown Champaign to downtown Chicago in 45 minutes, and to O’Hare Airport in an hour and 15 minutes.
“Think about how that changes your position not only in the Midwest but in the rest of the world,” said Rick Harnish, head of the rail association. “You can get to downtown Champaign in 45 minutes or to O’Hare in an hour and 15. You can basically access the entire world with a one-stop or non-stop flight.”
Harnish said Gov. Pat Quinn had assembled a committee to conduct a $1.2 million study of high-speed rail through Champaign-Urbana and to look at financing possibilities. Results are expected by the end of 2012, he said.
“It’s specifically to study O’Hare, downtown Chicago, Champaign and then looking at whether to go from Champaign to Indianapolis and/or St. Louis,” he said. “The U of I is doing the work. So not only is the U of I the leading railroad engineering program in North America, they will become the only 220 mile an hour railroad engineering program in North America. U of I is going to take the lead in learning what the economic impacts of high speed rail are in both the Urbana campus and the Chicago campus.”
In a separate presentation, Champaign County Nursing Home manager Michael Scavotto said the facility faces a number of revenue problems, including a decreasing census, delays in Medicaid payments from the state and an upcoming cut in federal Medicare reimbursements.
“The bottom did fall out after the first quarter (of the fiscal year),” he said.
Still, Scavotto said, there’s a good chance the nursing home could close its fiscal year in the black, although it won’t be able to make a significant dent in the amounts it owes to vendors.
One way to increase revenue, he said, is to make more single-patient rooms available.
“We can make some single suites available for private patients,” he said. “But it’s dependent on cash and we’re strapped right now. As we can we’d like to spruce these rooms up a little bit, maybe put in a flat screen TV and a La-Z-Boy.”
The county board also unanimously approved the appointment of Gary Maxwell to the board, replacing Larry Sapp who had resigned earlier this summer. Maxwell, a Republican from Mahomet, will represent District 1 on the board. His term runs until Nov. 30, 2012.
The only board members missing from Thursday’s meeting were Democrat Giraldo Rosales and Republican Steve O’Connor.
Wow!!!! A 220 mph train from Chicago to Champaign, and back that only takes 45 minutes to get to downtown Chicago!!! Gee, how much does it cost? Wow, the bankrupt state is funding a $1,200,000.00 study for it!! After the study; the train may go on to Indianapolis, or St. Louis!!! (What will it do? Turn a 90 degree angle at Champaign for Indianapolis?) We got to have this!!! It is fast, shiny, and expensive!!! It could be the City of ShampooBanana Limited. "Riding on the City of ShampooBanana.... "
I agree with you. The infrastructure needs repair. The railroad which operates on it should maintain it better even sometimes with public funds. However, rushing to get a high-speed train from Chicago to Champaign is insane if public funds are utilized. The route from Chicago to St. Louis is shorter through Bloomington, and Springfield. The route through Champaign does not hit the larger communities. Yes, Mattoon, and Effingham are valued communities; but they are not Bloomington, and Springfield. Bloomington has a good airport also. A route from Chicago to Champaign to Indianapolis is absurd just by looking at a map. The communities on the route will be expected to upgrade facilities, and local infrastructure which will cost public funding more. There will be time to jump on the bandwagon. Being first does not make much sense based on what has been explained to the public.
As a frequent rider on this train, I can tell you that it is quite often very crowded. It is a major service line for Chicago students at the U of I and SIU. Carbondale is a rather significant community, if a few hours further away. Perhaps that might make the high speed even more important. It then heads on to Memphis, which is almost as large as STL.
And its not like this investment just disappears into the ether. Every dollar spent is a dollar that will go to workers and contractors, who then spend that money on things like rents, mortgages, grocery bills, restaurants, and hardware -- and each of those places employs people who pay the same things.
You know, jobs. And as a leftover, we happen to have a much more efficient and useful mass transit system.
"Every dollar spent is a dollar that will go to workers and contractors." I seriously doubt that! Where is this money going to come from to pay for this? Have you taken notice, this state along with this contry is broke! Time to learn some fiscal responsibility instead of irresponsibility!
Just another black hole to throw money at....anything the state or fed. gov. cant make a profit ...I give you the post office...amtrack...and many more .So this is just another way to go broke and then come back on the tax payer to bail it out.Libreals love these things...SPENDING MONEY THEY DONT HAVE ...its my money am i getting tired of giving it to them.
I seriously doubt if the current Amtrak service to Chicago would be nearly as popular if you had to pay the actual cost to transport a passenger. Amtrak is subsidized up the wazoo. Take away the subsidy and see how much that ticket will cost. Same situation will occur with high speed trains.
WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY!!!!
Well cap80, I think you're right. I also think that very few people would fly if the airports and air traffic control weren't heavily subsidized. Very few people would drive if they actually had to pay for the true costs of the use of the roads or the police patrols, or the subsidized fuel which does not include the costs of our oil wars or the price we pay to remain allies with the oil-producing monarchies and theocracies of the world.
The fact is that almost every form of travel in this country (or almost any other) relies heavily on socialized infrastructure and subsidies of other kinds. Even walking dirt trails requires public byways or at least a legal structure to provide right-of-way. Amtrak gets very little help compared to the taxpayer money spent on highways and airports.
All the talk about free enterprise, innovation driven by the market, the wonders of capitalism, yet they need public money, which the public doesn't even have.
They all come with their hands open: oil companies, nuclear energy people, ethanol, wind energy, asking for "start up" money for their wonderful business.
If High Speed Rail is so wonderful where are the private investors lining up to get in on it at the ground level?
If ethanol is so wonderful why the government subsidy?
Of course most of the local Republicans, influenced by or afraid of the 'tea party' crazies, are against this investment in public transportation infrastructure. These were the same types of far right wing Republicans who were against the interstate system, calling it 'socialistic' and an infringement on states' rights. If we listened to them then, we'd still have a hodgepodge of state and county roads instead of our interstate system.
I see Nudo, perhaps fearing Bambenek, has joined the repackaged Birchers and is against new rail system. Can we take this as an indication that instead of standing up to the 'tea party' extremists, he's instead going to pander to them and try to make them happy? Unfortunately, given the way most Republicans are behaving, this is probably the case. That's too bad for him. Doing so might allow him to beat Bambenek in the primary, but he will not be able to recover from such extremism in the general.
Of course, the Federal Highway Act of 1956 passed in the house on a 388-6 vote, and passed the senate on a voice vote. The interstate system itself is known as the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. What was Eisenhower's party again? What are you talking about?
To you, borrowing hundreds of billions, or perhaps trillions of dollars with no plan to pay it back just so a few people can get to Chicago or St Louis in an hour is a great idea. To me, that is an extremely silly idea. Just because some local politicians agree that it is extremely silly, doesn't make them extremists.
Ike would be unceremoniously drummed out of the Republican party today as a rino (as would the tax raising, deficit spending Reagan, but that's another story). And do the research, there were plenty of bircher type Republicans who said the IHS was socialism and would destroy the country.
Infrastructure improvements pay off in spades. They create jobs building and maintaining them and they exponentially increase business and commerce. Think how much the highways continue to benefit the economy. This improvement will have similar beneficial effects.
And the 'tea party' most definitely is extreme. In another comment thread, I posted a link to this NY Times op-ed written by scholars who have been studying the 'tea party' for five years:
Polls show that disapproval of the Tea Party is climbing. In April 2010, a New York Times/CBS News survey found that 18 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of it, 21 percent had a favorable opinion and 46 percent had not heard enough. Now, 14 months later, Tea Party supporters have slipped to 20 percent, while their opponents have more than doubled, to 40 percent.
Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.
...
So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do.
They are absolutely out of the mainstream and more people are waking up to how extreme they are.
What is desperately needed here--and also with respect to the Olympian Drive project--is a voter's referendum and subsequently a ballot referendum to let the registered voters of Champaign County
say yes/no to these debt-ridden projects. The Goad Lady and all her engineering constituents are out of control.
Is a 220 mph train going to stop at Kankakee, Paxton, and Rantoul? What is the distance between Rantoul, and Champaign? Something less than 20 miles? Man, that train will really have a set of brakes on it! What happens if Kankakee, Paxton, and Rantoul have no money to upgrade their infrastructure? There are bridges, streets, and crossing guards to upgrade. Hasn't anyone read the State Journal Register regarding Springfield's concern on getting the Bullet Train? Until this speed demon's start, and end is known; it is a bad idea given the money involved. At least, the Union Pacific knew it was going to San Francisco. The Illinois Central knew it's destination was New Orleans. No one knows where this train may end. A Bullet Train only from Chicago to Champaign and back is like a bridge from Alaska to Russia.
Would all of the Silver Streak supporters please read today's State Register Journal article regarding Secretary of Transportation, Ray La Hood's view on what communities the Bullet Train will travel through. He never mentioned Champaign. He is supporting Springfield. Imagine that!!!! The High Speed route is intended for Chicago, Bloomington, Springfield, and St. Louis. Did anyone talk to Ray La Hood before voting support for the Silver Streak train? Remember Ray La Hood, former congressman from Illinois, now Secretary of Transportation? Golly, the U of I got a $1,200,000.00 fee for a high speed rail survey; and the Secretary of Transportation who is from Illinois publicly supports Springfield as the route. Gee, do you think they will have two routes? One from Chicago to St. Louis through Springfield; and one from Chicago to Champaign. Was there ANY HOMEWORK done before the vote for support; or did everyone just go to dinner, and voted????
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