Pols look to nab funding for WIU campus development in Moline

Local legislators are willing to consider putting their support behind a state borrowing plan that could lead to funding for the Western Illinois University campus on the Moline riverfront.

Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline, said state legislative leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, Senate President Emil Jones Jr., House Minority Leader Tom Cross and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are trying to reach an agreement on a $3 billion capital budget to pay for state transportation and infrastructure projects.

Rep. Boland said Thursday he would support the bond issue on two conditions, one being it include money for the WIU Quad-Cities campus.

The planned 20-acre campus is on property donated by Deere & Co. on River Drive in Moline, east of the Interstate 74 bridge. Estimates have put the cost of building the entire campus at $57 million.

Nearly $15 million would go to renovate Deere & Co.'s former two-story tech center near 34th Street into the school's college of business and technology programs.

University officials said that renovation would be followed in the future with two more buildings.

"The impact would be tremendous," Rep. Boland said about what the campus would do for the Quad-Cities. "I believe we'd have 500 construction jobs, 500 full-time jobs, and 5,000 to 10,000 students over time would have a big impact on our retail establishments," he said.

"I would like to get full funding," Rep. Boland said about the riverfront campus. "That is what I am shooting for. But sometimes you don't get what you want. Three billion might sound like an awful lot of money. ... But there is a lot of pent-up demand for $3 billion dollars."

Rep. Boland said his second condition for supporting the borrowing plan is that it would include money for widening U.S. 30 from Rock Falls to Fulton.

Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, said he'd be willing to take a look at a borrowing plan, but questions where the money would come from to pay off the bonds.

"I want to see what is tied to it. I would take a hard look at it especially if it meant dollars for my district, more specifically Western Illinois University," he said.

Rep. Verschoore said a group of Quad-Cities legislators and leaders are still looking at non-traditional financing options to build the Quad-Cities campus. He said several developers are interested in developing the project and having the state issue bonds to pay back the debt.

"I am cautiously optimistic that Western is going to move forward," he said. "The people I am talking with say the governor is behind the project. That is a biggie."

Sen. Todd Sieben, R-Geneseo, said he would support a $3 billion capital budget on three conditions. First, it must be structured properly. "There needs to be a revenue stream," he said, adding that there has been some discussion of a cigarette tax and using gasoline sales tax revenue to pay off the bonds.

The capital budget must be geographically balanced, he said. "We want to see that downstate Illinois is treated fairly," Sen. Sieben said.

Thirdly, he wants to see a non-partisan capital bill.

Sen. Sieben believes it is realistic to think WIU would get some funding if the bonds are issued. How much of that would go to the Quad-Cities campus is unknown.

"I have indicated my support that it is the right direction to expand Western’s presence," he said. "We need a four-year public university in the Quad-Cities. We are truly an underserved area."

This is a typically complicated issue and the politicians involved are all over the map and not exactly pulling together.

Since the WIU funds are trying to be smuggled through inside a transportation funding measure, it makes things pretty murcky.

First, it causes Boland to put widening 22 miles of rural highway between Rock Falls and Fulton ahead of WIU funding, which is understandable in a transportation funding bill. Boland's statement makes it appear that he's more excited about the liklihood that the massively expensive WIU project will increase retail sales. That's a good side effect, but what sort of retail businesses benefit from college students besides bars, fast food joints, and convenient stores, coffee shops, and perhaps public health clinics?

And it apparently causes Verschoore to waffle around on the issue because he seems to favor "non-traditional" funding methods, namely letting private money interests do the investment on WIU (and therefore call the tune and reap the profits) with the state issuing bonds and insuring that they make high profits without risk of loss. He seems reluctant to look at anything which might jeapardize these big-wig's plans to reap profits.

Sieben is more ideological and concerned with making sure that there are balancing budget cuts or revenue increases to offset any spending, and making sure that he gets a fair amount of the credit.

Jacobs offers his views in the piece as well, but since I've been accused several times of mentioning him here only to increase traffic, I won't mention his comments here.

Though this accusation is utterly ridiculous, (They're so arrogant that they think people are only interested in him? I hate to burst their bubble, but Jacobs doesn't drive traffic.) I guess the only way to avoid the charge is to just never mention him, right?