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Illinois state transportation officials say this year’s 19-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase means millions of more dollars to help fix aging downstate roads.

Illinois lawmakers have passed a $45 billion infrastructure improvement plan that includes provisions to increase the fuel tax rate and repeal the sales tax on truck license plates.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has drafted a $41.5 billion plan that would rely on a slew of new taxes and tax increases to repair the state’s infrastructure.

Dave Mauer and other Central States pensioners in the Rockford area have formed the Illinois/Rock River Valley Committee to Protect Pensions. The group has scheduled an April 6 meeting at the Teamsters Local 325 union hall in Rockford to mobilize and pressure Congress to rescue failing multiemployer pension funds.

Illinois’ recent score of a C- on the American Society of Civil Engineers’ infrastructure scorecard signals underinvestment from elected officials, according to Darren Olson, chairman of the report card study.

The Interstate 74 bridge replacement, a tandem project of the Iowa and Illinois departments of transportation, will increase capacity and facilitate mobility on an important corridor that links the two states.

Six months after lawmakers hastily passed their first state budget in two years, transportation advocates are sounding the alarm on a little-noticed item that will take $300 million from road repairs to pay other expenses each year.

The Illinois Department of Transportation warned that it will be unable to pay for road work underway if state lawmakers don’t soon finish a budget.