Legislators accomplished a number of goals during the first half of the 97th General Assembly, but there’s no question that the upcoming session will present even more challenges as our State continues to recover from the national economic downturn. In this week’s column, I wanted to highlight some of the bills I sponsored and helped pass last year that benefit Southern Illinois. As your voice in Springfield, I have continued my commitment to put people back to work and revitalize our region’s coal industry.

Senate Bill 4 (Public Act 97-0002) was the first bill I introduced because of its importance to our region’s economic development and job growth. The bill allowed the Continental Tire facility in Mt. Vernon, which was recently recognized as "Business of the Year" by the Greater Egypt Regional Planning and Development Commission for its contribution to our region’s economic growth, to take advantage of the State’s EDGE Tax credit program. Since the bill became law in May, the facility has completed a $224 million expansion project and hired at more than 50 new employees – with a total of 444 new full-time jobs to be added over the next three years.

The coal industry in our district is also important to our region. Coal mining represents over 2,000 jobs for the people of Southern Illinois with over 500 more to be created over the next two years. I have worked hard to revive our region’s struggling coal mining industry by pursuing ways to make clean coal plants in Illinois a reality. Senate Bill 1533 (Public Act 97-0096) gives the green light to begin construction of a $2.3 billion, state-of-the-art clean coal plant in Jefferson County. The project will create 1,650 jobs – including 300 new mining jobs and 250 full-time jobs, and generate more than $10 billion in economic activity in our region. Senate Bill 2169 (Public Act 97-0239), which allows a $3 billion clean coal plant to be built in Chicago, will use at least 1 million tons of Illinois coal every year, increasing demand for local coal production and putting hundreds of new miners back to work in our district. In the final months of last year, I advanced Senate Bill 678, which will authorize construction of a $3.5 billion clean coal plant in central Illinois. The project will create an estimated 2,500 construction jobs and 155 full-time jobs at the facility, 300 mining jobs, and 75 trucking jobs along with thousands of indirect jobs as a result of construction and operation spending. The facility is expected to inject over $8 billion into the Illinois economy, benefitting mostly our district.

I am excited about the opportunity to accomplish even more for Southern Illinois residents during the upcoming session, which is scheduled to being January 31. I will continue to stand up for the people of our district and I encourage residents to visit my website, www.SenatorForby.com, to contact me with their ideas, concerns and questions about issues we’re dealing with in Springfield.