Friday was a banner day for Illinois, and in particular, for the hard-working people in the city of Joliet. I received word late Friday afternoon that Governor Pat Quinn was planning to sign a bill I sponsored to create a unique public-private relationship involving a regional transportation hub in Joliet. In effect, Illinois developer CenterPoint Properties would be allowed to use a portion of state tax receipts to spur construction of a 3,800-acre intermodal facility – a fancy term for a place where goods are transferred from trains to trucks and vice versa, and then delivered throughout the Midwest.

I consider this one of the most important pieces of legislation I’ve sponsored in my four and a half years in the state senate. With the city’s unemployment rate now at 14%, there isn’t a better time for the state to get behind such a large-scale and significant project. This will create thousands of jobs for the Joliet area, which is in desperate need of economic development.

The Joliet Herald News has a great article on the project that you can read here.

Illinois is now the fifth largest exporting state in the country. If we are to maintain our status as the premiere transportation hub in the Midwest, it’s going to take this sort of collaborative and creative effort.