|
Archives
Gov. Blagojevich Announces Economic Boosts
DECATUR, Ill. (AP) - Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced a series of grants and
tax incentives for central Illinois businesses, including a $7.4 million boost
for
a Decatur company that makes equipment for municipal water systems.
Blagojevich traveled to Decatur to announce a package of tax credits and
other incentives to help Mueller Co. expand and upgrade its facilities. The
governor
also visited Champaign and Peoria to tout his ``Opportunity Returns’’ economic
development plans for the central part of the state.
``It’s our obligation to support this company that has invested so much
in this community and help it stay strong,’’ Blagojevich said.
Blagojevich has tried to use ``Opportunity Returns’’ as a means
of pumping up the economy with economic-development projects.
The idea was to divide the state into 10 regions and announce programs in
each, with help from local governments, business leaders and citizens. However,
Blagojevich
has been criticized for moving too slowly in announcing exactly how the money
would be spent and for not consulting local officials as he promised.
His trip coincided with his signing of a state budget for the fiscal year
that starts July 1, but Blagojevich never mentioned the budget, which closed
a $1.2
billion deficit largely by skipping state payments into pension systems for
educators and state workers. The governor didn’t take questions at his
last stop, in Peoria.
Mueller Co., which employs about 500 at its Decatur plant, plans to start
expansion this summer and complete all phases of the $16 million project by
2007.
Other state grants and tax breaks Blagojevich announced include $300,000
for development of a Springfield medical district, $1 million for Monterey
Coal
Co. in Macoupin County and $60,000 for a pilot e-learning initiative for Decatur
high school students.
In Peoria, the governor doled out $1.2 million from ``Opportunity Returns’’ and
committed a total of $4.5 million in grants to build a high-tech business incubator
that he predicted will create up to 1,200 jobs over the next eight years.
He said the center will help turn breakthrough ideas in fields such as biomedicine
and renewable energy into new businesses. The state-supported project will
partner with heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc., Bradley University, Peoria’s
medical community and a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab, which invest a
combined $1 billion annually on research and development.
``We can be on the cutting edge and lead the nation and turn this great state
of ours, the Prairie State, into a prairie of technological advancement and
job creation,’’ Blagojevich said.
In Champaign, the governor touted a $500,000 grant to the Information Trust
Institute, an arm of the University of Illinois that is doing research in
computer security
and reliability issues in partnership with such companies as Boeing, Hewlett-Packard
and Cisco Systems.
Archives
|
