It doesn’t take quantum physics to understand Pritzker’s ‘Rebuild Illinois’ program, but just in case …

I’m told state representatives were instructed to designate $2.5 million-$3 million worth of projects for their districts, while senators were allotted $5 million-$6 million, not to suggest everyone was treated equally.

SHARE It doesn’t take quantum physics to understand Pritzker’s ‘Rebuild Illinois’ program, but just in case …
Gov. J.B. Pritzker attends a bill-signing ceremony at the James R. Thompson Center.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker attends a bill-signing ceremony at the James R. Thompson Center, Wednesday afternoon.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Whether you call it pork barrel spending, earmarks or plain old-fashioned horse trading, it took a lot of sweeteners to get lawmakers on board Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s $45 billion state construction plan, which he calls Rebuild Illinois.

Legislators set aside funding for projects in seemingly every community in the 362-page bill awaiting Pritzker’s signature: from $15 million for a new Chicago Park District fieldhouse in Jackie Robinson Park in Washington Heights to $98 million for “noise abatement” to cut down the screeching sound emanating from the Belt Railway yard in Bedford Park.

There’s $75,000 to expand the locker room at the Marine Leadership Academy, a Chicago public school on the city’s West Side, and $60 million to fix up the Cottage Grove station on the south branch of the CTA’s Green Line.

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The Chinese Mutual Aid Association is slated to receive $3 million to build a Pan Asian American Center at an unspecified location, while $15 million was appropriated for construction of a new facility for the LGBTQ-oriented Howard Brown Health Center.

The University of Chicago would get $100 million to build and equip a new facility for the Chicago Quantum Exchange, a collaboration of regional research institutions seeking to advance quantum science.

Footnote: the exchange is currently based at the U of C’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, which recently received a separate $100 million commitment from the Pritzker Foundation. But before you jump to any conclusions, that foundation does not involve Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who split off his charitable endeavors from the rest of his family.

There’s lots more projects. That’s just a taste.

I’m told state representatives were instructed to designate $2.5 million-$3 million worth of projects for their districts, while senators were allotted $5 million-$6 million, not to suggest everyone was treated equally.

Although many of those “member initiatives” are detailed in the legislation, H.B. 62, others are lumped together in large multi-billion categories with more specific appropriations expected to be disclosed later. 

Many of the big ticket items come directly from state agencies, and I think we can guess that part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s city wish list is included in there as well.

It’s a requirement of the capital program that the money be used to build something rather than to support the operating costs of a program, which in the past has sometimes been an issue for legislators in poor areas. 

Individual legislator’s names are not listed with the earmarks in the legislation. 

Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), the first Indian-American elected to the Senate, said he pushed for the new Pan Asian community center, which he envisions as a place for the area’s diverse and fast growing Asian population to come together for services of common need. He expects it to be located on the North Side or north suburbs with Skokie emerging as an early favorite. 

I didn’t spot any obviously egregious taxpayer boondoggles in my first reading of the bill, which is not to say they aren’t in there.

But I was intrigued by the money destined for noise reduction at the Belt Railway Yard, situated squarely in House Speaker Mike Madigan’s district.

Bedford Park Village President Dave Brady assured me the need is real, necessitated by noisy new safety equipment in the rail yard designed to slow or stop a runaway train. 

“This is a long, screeching metal on metal sound,” Brady said, comparing it to a “long version” of the screeching noise a CTA train makes rounding a sharp turn. 

“The sound complaints have mainly come from hotels around Midway,” but also from Chicago residents, said Brady, who contends the screech is worse than any airport noise. 

Brady initially told me he never spoke to Madigan about the problem, but later called back to acknowledge he’d sent a letter to the speaker, who is known to put a high priority on constituent requests. 

Madigan’s fingerprints would seem to be on other generous earmarks as well, such as a $9 million appropriation for capital upgrades to John Hancock College Preparatory High School, located in his district at 4034 W. 56th. 

Nearby in the neighboring district of freshman Rep. Aaron Ortiz and Sen. Tony Munoz, there’s also $31 million for the Academy for Global Citizenship, a CPS charter school with locations at 4647 W. 47th St. and 4941 W. 46th St. 

Many legislators seemed to be looking out for their local schools. Grover Cleveland Elementary School, 3121 W. Byron, would receive three grants totaling $6.2 million. Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy, 1840 W. Ohio, would get $350,000 to fix up the playground. There are dozens more.

The legislation also earmarks $20 million to build a new community center on the Northwest Side, and $10 million for a senior center in the city. In both cases, no further information was offered.

Illinois Institute of Technology would receive $5 million toward construction of the “loop operation of the Illinois Tech Microgrid,” which the university has described as the “nation’s Perfect Power microgrid.” 

There’s also money for Chicago hospitals: $1 million for Mount Sinai; $14 million for Rush University Medical Center to make ADA improvements; $550,000 for Norwegian-American Hospital; $250,000 for Amita Health St. Mary’s and Elizabeth. 

Chicago State University, faced with a possible closure just a few years ago, would receive $15.8 million to build a nursing lab that would include a “simulated hospital.” 

The project list is the product of pent-up demand since the state’s last capital program was approved a decade ago — and of a new governor who seems to want to make everyone happy.

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