From Illinois Policy:
Pritzker doubled your gas tax and is sitting on the money
The law promised major infrastructure improvements, but the state’s roads aren’t in any better shape than when it took effect seven years ago.
by Jess Plowman
The state has collected billions of dollars in taxes for road improvements from the massive 2019 Rebuild Illinois law, but drivers aren’t seeing the benefits.
Illinois is taking in tax dollars faster than it’s spending them on improving infrastructure, and the roads are in no better shape than they were seven years ago, when the hallmark legislation of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first term took effect.
Despite Road Fund revenue growing an average of 14% a year under the bill, fund expenditures grew by an average of just 5% yearly.
What’s more, most of that increased spending was front-loaded in the first two years of the program. Since 2022, Road Fund outlays have increased just 1.3% a year on average, not even the rate of inflation.
In other words, since passing Rebuild Illinois, the state is collecting more money for roads, but it isn’t spending more money on roads.
The Illinois Department of Transportation did not respond to the question of why spending on state roads and bridges appears to have leveled off.
Meanwhile, a “lockbox” provision in the Illinois Constitution prevents Road Fund money from being diverted to non-transportation spending (in theory).
That, coupled with the imbalance between revenues and expenditures, has left the fund flush with cash.
At the end of fiscal 2025 it held $3.7 billion.
One pitfall of this is that a massive lump of cash sitting in the fund motivates lawmakers to find questionable ways around the lockbox — for instance, holding back revenues raised from gas sales from the Road Fund in the first place.
Last year, lawmakers used more than $1 billion from the Road Fund to bail out the Regional Transportation Authority.
Though not technically violating the lockbox provision, as the RTA is transportation, the move made construction unions mad and arguably violated the spirit of Rebuild Illinois: to fix roads and bridges.
Also, to win support from those unions, the law includes the potential for the largest passenger toll hike in Illinois history.
