On their to-do lists
Following is a list of earmarks, or area projects submitted by members of Congress and senators for inclusion in the fiscal year 2025 federal budget. A vote on the budget won’t occur until later this year or next year:
U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield 13th Congressional District
- $3.3 million to the Urbana Park District for improvements to Prairie and Weaver parks in east Urbana (above).
“Our basis for selection and award is that the neighborhood is in need of re-investment,” said Tim Bartlett, executive director of the park district. “The new Urbana Park District Health and Wellness Center will be our first step in re-investment in this neighborhood. We envision the need for a Phase 2 investment to help provide for the infrastructure needed for these two parks to reach their full potential in supporting this high hope neighborhood. The infrastructure outlined in our request was for support of electrical utilities, water, drainage, stormwater management, sanitary, grading, parking and other park and facility infrastructure to ultimately support future improvements.”
- $2.6 million to the University of Illinois for expansion of the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory on the Urbana campus. $1.2 million to the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District to buy two parcels of land from the city of Champaign for the expansion of the Illinois Terminal building in downtown Champaign. One parcel is a ramped parking lot south of the building and the other is the lot directly west of it. $1 million to the Champaign Park District for reconstruction of Parkland Way through Dodds Park connecting Mattis Avenue and Parkland College (above). $240,000 to Piatt County for improvements to county-owned buildings.
U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson Second Congressional District
- $1.6 million to Iroquois County for upgraded radio communications equipment for county law enforcement. $1.25 million to the village of Rantoul to extend Broadmeadow Road south to the Rantoul Family Sports Complex (above). $1.1 million to the village of Tilton to add five bays to the village fire station. $1.027 million to the city of Paxton for the second phase of streetscape improvements on South Market Street (above).
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro 12th Congressional District
$1.1 million to the Effingham Fire Department for a new platform ladder truck. U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria
16th Congressional District
- $4.5 million to the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority for design and construction of a new air cargo road for heavy tractor-trailers serving planes at the airport. $2 million to replace a bridge and widen the roadway on Fox Creek Road in southwest Bloomington.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield
- $3.5 million to Parkland College to build a new dental clinic and training facility. The project would expand charity-care services for hundreds of patients annually and allow Parkland to expand its dental-hygienist program (right). $560,000 to Iroquois Memorial Hospital and Resident Home in Watseka for facility improvements. $500,000 to the Agricultural Research Service for improvements to its facilities in Urbana. $105,000 to Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital in Coles County to expand rural tele-health efforts. $3.7 million to the Illinois Department of Transportation for vehicle and equipment purchases to benefit transit agencies serving Danville, Carbondale and Marion.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Hoffman Estates
- $1.21 million to the village of Kansas for development of its municipal building. $1.05 million to Parkland College to fund upgrades to the college’s aviation program. $1 million to Vermilion Advantage in Danville to pay for stormwater infrastructure upgrades. $580,000 to Eastern Illinois University to fund new technology and equipment upgrades at the Student Security Operations Center. $500,000 to the city of Paris for wastewater improvements. $262,000 to the Urbana school district for development of a community school initiative. $200,000 to Iroquois Memorial Hospital and Resident Home in Watseka for improvements.
Paxton Mayor Bill Ingold said he had a vision seven years ago to modernize his city’s downtown to make it look like about 60 years ago.
“When we started this, I said, ‘We don’t have a natural resource like the Grand Canyon or Lake of the Ozarks that will make people want to come to Paxton,’” said Ingold, mayor for almost 20 years. “So I said, ‘Let’s do something and make the downtown look like 1959.’ I think we’ve accomplished that with the street lights and the pedestrian lights, the sidewalks, the benches.”
But that was just one block of Paxton’s Market Street. Now he’s hoping to undertake a similar streetscape on the 100 block of South Market, with a big help from a congressional earmark from U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson.
Paxton’s $1.027 million undertaking is on Kelly’s list of 15 projects for communities in her Second Congressional District, which extends from the South Side of Chicago to the south side of Danville. If all the plans are included in the fiscal year 2025 federal budget, which likely will be voted on later this year or in early 2025, about $34 million in federal money will be headed to projects in her district, including $1.25 million for the extension of Broadmeadow Road in Rantoul to the Rantoul Family Sports Complex east of Interstate 57, and $1.1 million for the expansion of Tilton’s fire station.
“I’m pulling out all the stops,” Ingold said. “We’ll send out to everybody and beg for money. I’m not too proud to do that.”
Likewise in Rantoul, said Village Administrator Scott Eisenhauer.
“The village of Rantoul has worked in terrific partnership with Congresswoman Kelly and her staff, and have gained a great understanding and appreciation of their desire to build communities, provide economic growth through public and private investment, support youth development, and provide safe and necessary infrastructure to move the village forward,” he said. “Therefore, recognizing our goals are aligned, we have no hesitation seeking federal support for our projects, and hope this is just another of many we get to complete together.”
Congressional earmarks, which were banned for a brief time after episodes of abuse, are back in greater numbers now. This year’s federal budget includes more than $14 billion in earmarks, with the great majority of senators and representatives taking part.
In Illinois, both senators and all but one representative have published lists of the projects — called “community project funding” in the House and “congressionally directed spending” in the Senate — that they want included in next year’s budget.
The one holdout is Rep. Mary Miller, R-Hindsboro, whose office again declined to offer an explanation for her lack of participation in funding local projects in her 15th Congressional District, which includes Quincy, Charleston-Mattoon, Tuscola and hundreds of other small cities and towns.
Miller’s not against all federal outlays. Her husband’s Coles County farm has received more than $1 million in federal subsidies between 1995 and 2023, according to the Environmental Working Group.
But Miller has never asked for earmarks. At least one Republican official, Adams County Republican Chairman Dave Bockhold, has urged her to be more like Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, and work to bring home some pork.
Bockhold told party leaders last year that Miller’s district is “getting absolutely no return on investment on the tax dollars that we send to Washington, D.C. There are many projects in our area and across the district that could possibly be funded but won’t even be considered for potential funding without our representative advocating for it in Congress.”
Bost defended bringing home the bacon for his district (his new list of projects totals about $30 million) and said if Miller won’t spend the money on her district, he’ll use it for his.
“Any earmark, or whatever you want to call it, that I have ever asked for, I will defend it, because I am talking to my people and knowing that it is supported,” Bost told the Chicago Tribune. “If you don’t do it in your district, somebody’s going to do it in theirs. And if Mary doesn’t want what should have been her earmarks, then send them to the Illinois 12th, because I’ve got other places where I’m going to be falling short and projects that need to be done so that we can grow and be the booming economy that we need to be.”
Although Miller submitted no earmark requests, Illinois’ two senators seemed determined to bring some federal money to her area. They included requests for projects in Charleston, Kansas, Paris, Oquawka, Quincy, Mattoon and Pittsfield, all in her 15th Congressional District.
Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, whose 13th District includes Champaign-Urbana, is asking for about $90 million in earmarks, although the biggest chunk is for a multistate navigation program on the Mississippi River. She also asked for millions to help the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, the Urbana Park District and the Champaign Park District.
Budzinski’s Republican opponent in this fall’s election, Joshua Loyd of Virden, said he also would push for earmarks.
“Of course! We have several communities who direly need it,” Loyd said. “Let’s help our communities, urban and rural alike, to make them better!”
Perhaps the biggest earmark winner among institutions in East Central Illinois is Parkland College. The Champaign-based community college would get $3.5 million through Sen. Dick Durbin to build a new dental clinic that would allow it to expand its charity care and increase enrollment in its dental-hygienist program from 36 to 50 students, and also more than $1 million through a request from Sen. Tammy Duckworth to upgrade its aviation training program.
A third grant, from Budzinski, would pay to upgrade Parkland Way that runs through Dodds Park to the college. Although it carries the Parkland name, it is the responsibility of the Champaign Park District.
“President (Pam) Lau and our board of trustees have been intentional in recent years about sharing Parkland’s mission and impact with our state and federal legislators,” said Stephanie Stuart, a vice president and the college’s chief communications officer. “Last year, President Lau expanded the college’s Grants and Sponsored Programs office and carves out a portion of my time at the vice-president level to oversee that department and serve as the government-relations liaison for the college. Together, we examine opportunities for funding matched with our academic and industry priorities.”
