Andrew Cunningham l Executive Director, Infrastructure Council l 217-520-2345

Illinois Chamber Annual Meeting - Thank you

Good afternoon, everyone. I want to open this letter with a sincere thank you to everyone who was able to attend and sponsor this year's annual meeting that took place yesterday at the Palmer House in Chicago. The luncheon is always a great opportunity for members of the Chamber to network with each other and hear from some tremendous speakers on relevant topics of the day. This year's attendees heard a great panel discussion on the future of energy as well as remarks from the Federal Reserve. 

I was able to meet many of you for the first time over the past few days and enjoyed our conversations. Please don't hesitate to reach out any time. 

So, once again, thank you for a great annual meeting. The strength of the Chamber and the Infrastructure Council truly lies in our members.

Illinois State Freight Advisory Council Discusses State Freight Plan and Competitive Freight Program

On Tuesday, the Illinois State Freight Advisory Council held its fall meeting at the IDOT Hanley building in Springfield. This was my first meeting as a part of the group but the Illinois Chamber has been a member of ISFAC for many years. 

ISFAC received a state and federal legislative update but most of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of the Illinois Statewide Freight Plan and the Illinois Competitive Freight Program. The 2022 Illinois State Freight Plan presentation is provided below but much of the discussion surrounded the Highway Needs Assessment metrics and scoring process. A State freight plan draft is expected to be coming soon.

Competitive Freight Program highlights: 

• Approximately $50 million per year 2022-2026
• $35 million (70%) per year for Highway Projects
• $15 million (30%) per year for Intermodal (Rail & Water) Projects
• Eligibility criteria same as previous Competitive Freight Program

IDOT presented the scoring process for highway projects as well as the process that will be used for intermodal projects. Time was also taken during the meeting to unveil the interactive online scoring tool that will be used for highway projects.

View the Illinois Statewide Freight Plan update provided by IDOT here.

View the Illinois Competitive Freight Program 2022 presentation provided by IDOT here.

Rebuild Illinois capital plan; Local governments receive $250 million for transportation needs

The Illinois Department of Transportation announced on Thursday that the sixth and final $250 million installment as part of the Rebuild Illinois capital program is being made to counties, municipalities and townships to address local transportation needs. Funding from the previous $250 million installments to improve local transportation already have supported nearly 3,800 projects across the state. The funding via Rebuild Illinois is in addition to the regular contributions to local governments through the state's motor fuel tax formula.

You can view a complete list of local agencies and awards here.

Rulemaking 

There was no new proposed rulemaking of note for this Council in the October 7th edition of the Illinois Register.

However, there was adopted rulemaking from the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation provided below:

IDFPR adopted amendments to the Part now titled Landscape Architecture Registration Act (68 Ill. Adm. Code 1275; 46 Ill Reg 4477) effective 9/ 26/22 that reflect the expiration of the former Act and adoption of a new Act. 

IDFPR Summary and purpose of rulemaking:

The Landscape Architecture profession previously went from full licensure, to unregulated, and is now being reinstated as a registration [versus licensed profession]. These proposed amendments would update the old rules where all mentions of licensure are replaced with registration, along with a few other changes. The previous Act (which was not renewed in 2020) was a licensure act; the new Act is a title protection act for Landscape Architects. The Department has historically not required continuing education for professionals who are not licensed by the Department, but who instead are entitled only to the limited title protection provided by the current Act.

All Landscape Architects who held active licenses at the time the Act expired (Jan. 1, 2020) are grandfathered in - those licenses will now be active registrations. These amendments also eliminate the Continuing Education requirement; CE is no longer needed for renewal of registration as it is not currently in the statute. These amendments would also clarify requirements for foreign-educated applicants, who will have credentials evaluated at their own expense through Educational Credential Evaluators and have the results sent to the Department. Finally, these amendments include changing the “certification” of education requirement to transcripts showing conferral of degree.

View the October 7th Illinois Register here.

Session Update

As a reminder, the General Assembly has released the schedule for veto session. Lawmakers will be back in Springfield Tuesday, November 15 -November 17 as well as November 29-December 1. 

View and download the veto calendar here.

Looking forward, Legislators have been informed to keep their schedules open between January 4th-10th for potential lame duck session dates. We will let you know when those dates are finalized.

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