Rail-bill takeover draws ‘huh?’
Area legislators aren’t sure whether a top senator’s action is meant for good.


By Aaron Chambers
REGISTER STAR SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
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SPRINGFIELD — Local lawmakers were stunned Friday to learn that the Senate’s No. 2 ranking member seized control of Winnebago County’s plan to create a rail authority to kick-start a freight rail connection at Rockford’s airport.

They wondered whether Senate Majority Leader Debbie DeFrancesco Halvorson intended to advance the county’s plan — or whether her decision to sponsor the plan in the Senate amounted to a hostile takeover.

Halvorson, D-Crete, is helping lead the effort to build an airport in Peotone, 40 miles south of Chicago. She became the Senate’s chief sponsor of Winnebago County’s plan immediately after the House unanimously approved it Thursday.

Halvorson did not return phone calls for comment Friday. But Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, spoke on her behalf.

Halvorson now controls any amendments to the county’s plan — and whether it moves at all. Davidsmeyer said Halvorson did not intend to obstruct it.

“She picked it up because it’s a work in progress,” Davidsmeyer said. “She works with the Transportation Committee. She has a lot of interest in this. And she wants to be sure it’s done right.”

During a hearing in the House in March, Rep. William Davis, D-Hazel Crest, said he feared that Rockford’s airport would be “eliminating some of the air congestion” around Chicago — the issue the Peotone airport would address.

If Rockford would be able to handle some of the traffic from Chicago, Davis said, “that seems to be kind of in conflict with what we’re trying to do (in Peotone) as well.”

Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, sponsored the county’s plan in the House. He said Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, was supposed to sign up to be Senate sponsor.

“I’m not sure what (Halvorson’s move) means,” Jefferson said.

Syverson said he decided a week ago to not be the bill’s sponsor because Jones, the Senate president, was holding back bills sponsored by Republicans.

“To make sure it would move, I stayed off of that,” he said.

Syverson said if Halvorson tried to impede the county’s plan, local lawmakers would attempt to move it using another bill. “Or maybe she wants to do something that’s positive, and that would just make this thing move better.”

Rep. Dave Winters, a Shirland Republican who co-sponsored the plan in the House, said Halvorson’s move is potentially an attempt to hold up the bill. During discussion of the bill with House GOP leaders, he heard “there might be concerns with Peotone.”

“I explained to them that it was really more freight-oriented than it was Amtrak,” Winters said. “In our analysis anyway, it doesn’t consider that a potential threat.”

The Illinois Department of Transportation has expressed opposition to the plan. Labor groups representing rail workers also are cool to it, according to Jefferson and Winters.

Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen is spearheading the plan to create a rail authority. Its board would consist of people serving on the Rockford Airport Authority.

Christiansen has said establishing the authority was essential in applying for state and federal grant money for rail projects and future projects, and would spur economic growth for the region.

He also has said his plan does not conflict with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s effort to bring intercity passenger trains back to Rockford and northwest Illinois, or with plans by the Northern Illinois Commuter Transportation Initiative to bring commuter trains from Chicago to Rockford and Belvidere.

Durbin, D-Ill., spearheaded a feasibility study for an Amtrak line through the Rock River Valley, which has been inactive since 1981.

Staff writer Aaron Chambers may be reached at 217-782-2959 or achambers@rrstar.com.