$3.5 Million in Comprehensive Regional Planning Fund in Danger
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the state agency which integrates land use and transportation planning in the seven counties of north-eastern Illinois, has been put in danger of having their $3.5 million for Comprehensive Regional Planning Fund (CRPF) written out of the state budget. This would have a deeply painful effect on transportation funding in Illinois, as CMAP needs these funds to be able to leverage $11 million in matched federal funds, which allow them to secure around $2 billion for transportation projects in Illinois. Legislators supporting this cut are in effect leaving a far larger pot of federal funding on the table in looking for an immediate budget shortcut.
Losing this funding would endanger some of CMAP’s vital projects; among them the preparation to the Go To 2040 plan, the first-ever comprehensive plan for investment and development in the region, currently scheduled to be released in 2010. If this legislation goes through, CMAP’s planning efforts to accommodate population growth, currently estimated at an increase of 2.8 million by 2040 will be severely hampered.
For further reading, CMAP has a summary of their case available here and a sample letter available here. Please contact your state legislators (the Illinois State Board of Elections can help you identify exactly who to contact) and let them know that you oppose cutting funding to CMAP’s Comprehensive Regional Planning Fund.
