Will County officials plan to work with state and federal lawmakers this year on a variety of issues that could impact county residents and services.
The board approved on Thursday its legislative agendas for 2017 — a prioritized list of possible laws on which members plan to focus their attention.
Funding issues are typically a top priority and this year, the county will seek money for road improvements at both the state and federal level. Officials currently are working on a community friendly freight study to improve truck traffic. To accomplish this, they are calling on Congress to implement the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, a five-year, $305 billion bill to target freight system improvements nationwide.
With state and federal assistance, Will County wants to see the widening of I-55 and I-80, and improvements at the interchange of State Road 53 and I-80, areas heavily congested by trucks traveling to and from the intermodal centers.
Another key issue is opposing legislation that would change how pollution control facilities are defined, assessed and valued. The county’s Supervisor of Assessments Rhonda Novak said she now negotiates multi-year tax assessments with the counties two oil refineries, Citgo in Lemont and Exxon Mobil in Channahon, and does not tax pollution control devices. If more equipment is considered as a pollution control device, it could greatly reduce the taxes paid by the refineries, she said.
Other items on the legislative agendas include:
*Funding from the Federal Aviation Administration for a permanent or remote air traffic control tower at Lewis University Airport.
* Adoption of the Marketplace Fairness Act — to allow state and local governments to collect sales tax on online purchases.
*Continued funding to help the county fight the heroin epidemic.
*Amend the Electronic Products Recycling and Re-use Act to ensure that manufacturers pay for residential recycling of electronic items, not residents and local governments. Legislation also should guarantee that there are adequate and convenient recycling operations.
*Laws to ensure that groundwater is monitored at construction and demolition debris facilities.
*Funding for state mandated health programs that must keep pace with the county’s population growth.
*Adequate funding for probation and detention services to maintain safer communities and insuring offender accountability.
*Election issues, that includes laws to require school districts to use a teacher institute day for all elections, more timely handling of petitions challenged by local election boards, and opposing laws that would require ballots be available in a second language.
*The immediate appropriation of the telephone surcharge funds for the state and local 911 dispatch systems.
*No diversion of the state’s dedicated revenues that should come to the county, including sales, gas, income and RTA taxes, and the
Will County also has a list of road projects that will need funding in the future. These include:
*80th Avenue bridge replacement from 183rd to 191st over I-80.
*Intersection improvement at Center Road and Peotone Road.
*Intersection improvements at Laraway and Cedar and Laraway and Spencer Roads in New Lenox Township.
*Intersection improvement at Bell Road and 143 in Homer Glen.
*Widening of Bell Road from 159th to 151st in Homer Glen.
*Additional lanes on 135th Street from Smith Road to Archer Avenue in Lemont.
*Manhattan Road from Baseline to Brandon.
*Improving the structure on Pauling-Goodenow Road over Plum Creek.
*Reconstruction of Briggs Street from Mills to New Lenox Road
*Widening Plainfield-Naperville Road from 111th to 119th
*Widening Weber Road from 135th to Airport Road.
*Intersection improvements at Will Center Road at Peotone-Beecher Road.
