#372 Exploring the new $45 billion state infrastructure package

In June and July 2019, the State of Illinois enacted a $45 billion package of legislation to fund transportation, water infrastructure, natural resources, open space, school construction, affordable housing, and other projects. While appropriations for the capital package are found across multiple public acts, most of the specific projects were appropriated in one piece of legislation. As enacted, the legislation is publically available as a 362 page PDF. Though the document it is text searchable, the paragraph format makes it very difficult to draw any conclusions on the amounts appropriated to specific topic areas, recipients, or geographies.

To catalogue the types of projects and programs funded as part of the package, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) converted the legislation into a data table that can be explored and summarized in Excel and other statistical programs. The data table is available to download on the CMAP website and the R script used to translate the bill is available on CMAP’s GitHub page. Stephanie Levine, a policy analyst at CMAP, will give an overview of the components of the infrastructure package and demonstrate how the data can be used for analysis.

CMAP is the region’s comprehensive planning organization for the northeastern Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will. The agency and its partners developed and are now implementing ON TO 2050, a new long-range plan to help the seven counties and 284 communities of northeastern Illinois implement strategies that address transportation, housing, economic development, open space, the environment, and other quality-of-life issues. CMAP develops unique datasets on these topics which are publically accessible on the CMAP Data Hub.

RSVP required Braintree now requires all attendees to RSVP beforehand by 12:00 PM (noon). Walk-ins will not be allowed!

ASL This event will not have an American Sign Language interpreter.

Food Food and drinks will be provided. We encourage attendees to bring their own water bottles to reduce waste.