Full Text of HR0320 101st General Assembly
HR0320 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Illinois has long been the hub of freight rail in | 3 | | the United States; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, The seven private railroads bring 12,000 jobs with | 5 | | an average wage and benefits package of $125,000 a year per | 6 | | railroad employee to Illinois; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Rail in Illinois moves the crops that farmers | 8 | | grow, the fuel required for electricity, and the goods | 9 | | consumers demand every day; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, Without freight rail in Illinois, 26.8 million | 11 | | more trucks would have been on the road in 2017; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Freight railroads are the most environmentally | 13 | | friendly way to move large amounts of freight, as a single | 14 | | gallon of fuel is able to transport a ton of freight nearly 500 | 15 | | miles; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, Freight railroads in Illinois pay for their own | 17 | | infrastructure and do not rely on support from the State to | 18 | | maintain the 5,700 plus miles of track they own and operate; | 19 | | and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In 2019, freight railroads will spend over $600 | 2 | | million on their infrastructure in Illinois and $25 billion | 3 | | across the entire country; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Freight railroads pay a number of taxes to State | 5 | | and local governments in Illinois, including property tax, | 6 | | income tax, sales/use tax, fuel tax, franchise tax, fuel excise | 7 | | tax, and other regulatory fees, collectively contributing over | 8 | | a quarter of a billion dollars to State and local government | 9 | | each year; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, Recently, the freight railroads partnered with | 11 | | public agencies to pursue a successful $132 million INFRA grant | 12 | | from the United States Department of Transportation for CREATE, | 13 | | a model for public private partnerships in the United States, | 14 | | which was matched by $111 million from the State of Illinois | 15 | | and $116 million from the freight railroads collectively; | 16 | | therefore, be it
| 17 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 18 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 19 | | we recognize Illinois railroads on the 150th anniversary of the | 20 | | connection of the east and west railroads, represented by the | 21 | | "golden spike" planted in Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869.
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