Today, the Illinois Court of Appeals found the state capital bill to be unconstitutional. The court overturned the capital bill (actually a series of interconnected bills funding various public works projects) by finding that the bills violated the state constitution's "single subject" rule. That provision requires that all bills concern a single subject.
llinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law the $31 billion capital bill in 2009; about two-thirds of the money is slated for transportation projects. Consequently, this decision puts a lot of major infrastructure projects in jeopardy, including trail projects across the state and infrastructure money for CTA, Pace and Metra.
Active Transportation Alliance testified in support of the capital bill and continues to support these necessary investments in our state infrastructure. Stay tuned as we provide updates on this issue.