SIU President Glenn Poshard and local legislators united Monday in a plea for the Illinois House to renegotiate a statewide capital plan that has been blocked for the ninth year in a row.

Last week, the bill seemed poised to pass as both Republicans and Democrats expanded funding options in an effort to put through billions of construction dollars they say the state desperately needs.

The $34 billion bill would allocate funds for final Morris Library renovations and a new transportation center at Southern Illinois Airport, among other state construction projects.

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Yet in the final hours of the session, the Illinois House used a parliamentary move to eliminate the funding option because it used money earned from state gambling. The move took the entire proposal of the table.

“It was the best bill we could build under the circumstances,” Poshard said.

Lawmakers expressed their frustrations with the bill’s historic delay.

“We live in the fifth-largest state in the nation, yet it has been nine years since Illinois last created a capital plan,” said Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mt. Vernon.

Critics have blamed Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan for tangling the state’s best interests and his personal differences with the governor

“There’s one man who is not moving this bill forward,” said Rep. Jay C. Hoffman, D-Collinsville, at the press conference Monday.

Former U.S. Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert and Poshard were appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich as co-chairmen of the Illinois Works Coalition in March. Since then, the men designed a budget proposal that would lease the state lottery to pay for gambling expansions. The revenue from the gambling industry would in turn help pay for road repairs, new schools and economic development projects.

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Blagojevich has called for legislative leaders to renegotiate a plan by the end of the month.

“Nothing is ever dead in government until it gasps its last breath, and I’m still hopeful that these meetings that are being held will bring this bill back,” Poshard said. “But everyone has to get behind it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Diana Soliwon can be reached at 536.3311 ext. 252 or

[email protected].