The Fox Valley Associated General Contractors (FVAGC) is urging members to participate in a letter writing campaign to Illinois state legislators urging them to pass legislation to provide the Capital Development Board (CDB) with continued spending authority for ongoing state facility and higher education building construction projects approved by the legislature in fiscal year 2010.
The association indicates this authority, referred to as “capital re-appropriations” is stalled in Springfield, and that at present the fiscal year 2016 capital reappropriations have only authorized $4 million of the more than $2.1 billion (0.19 percent) of the total required CDB capital spending authority.
“While the Governor has worked with House and Senate Republicans to propose four separate capital reappropriations bills (FY17: HB6407, SB3255/ FY16: HB2913, SB2024), none of the bills have been scheduled for a committee hearing. We ask that you take a few minutes to either fill out your information and send the letter below to your Illinois state legislators, or contact them by phone by the close of business tomorrow. Since we are in the final days of the legislative session, it is important to act now.>
The association directs readers to a website (associated with the Illinois Construction Industry Committee (ICIC)) to generate personalized constituent letters to legislators. The text of the letter is below.
I am writing today to urge you to pass a full capital reappropriations bill. While there are currently four proposed capital reappropriations bills (FY17: HB6407, SB3255/ FY16: HB2913, SB2024); none of the bills have been assigned to committee. The FY2016 capital reappropriations (HB4166/Public Act 99-007) only authorized $4 million of the over $2.1 billion (0.19%) total required CDB capital spending authority
The consequences of not passing a full capital reappropriations bill are severe:
Due to the lack of FY2016 capital reappropriations authority, CDB was forced to issue stop work letters in June 2015 to contractors, architects, and engineers, which halted work on over 200 capital projects in various stages of construction and design, impacting more than 500 contractors, designers, and subcontractors, as well as thousands of construction workers and suppliers.
Every day that the stop work action continues, both costs and completion schedules will continue to grow.
As each project schedule is lengthened, construction project overhead costs for insurance, equipment rental, materials storage, supervisor costs, and site asset maintenance will continue to increase incrementally; costly damage to construction sites will also increase.
Without capital reappropriations authority, CDB has NO ability to address emergency situations that arise at State facilities, such as roofs blowing off, air conditioning issues, and water and mold infiltration. With over $6 billion in deferred maintenance at state-owned facilities, this may create dangerous situations for people residing in State facilities, facility visitors, and employees.
Countless halted projects are negatively impacting Higher Education teaching facilities and State agency operations, since construction schedules and delivery of materials are planned to minimize impacts to these entities and maximize productivity during warmer months.
Most of the 200+ impacted capital projects will not be able to absorb the demobilization, restart, and inflation costs in the project budgets. This will require additional appropriations authority to pay for these unanticipated incurred costs, as well as address emergency situations. Depending on the length of stoppage, CDB will need millions of dollars in additional appropriation authority and bond authorization in order to complete these projects committed to by the state.
Please support the state’s design and construction industry by voting YES on a comprehensive capital re-appropriations bill.
