Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard set a bad example for the entire south suburban region during a recent public meeting when she bragged about using grant money to fund a new skating rink.
“We’ve been building that ice rink for several months,” Henyard said Dec. 5. “You knew we were bringing that to the community, with grant money. I don’t use the taxpayers’ dollars, I don’t use property taxes, I don’t use water bill money. Grant money, so that means free money.”
Contrary to Henyard’s depiction, grant money is not free money. Grant money doesn’t fall from the sky, it comes from public tax dollars or from generous private donors who expect to see funds use responsibly.
Attitudes about grant funds are important as communities throughout the Southland compete in 2023 and beyond for a share of federal infrastructure funds.
The south suburbs seem to have more than their fair share of broken pipes, lead contamination, failed pumps and other problems affecting neglected water and sewer systems.
Every so often packs of TV news crews will arrive on a scene when a crisis erupts, like when broken water mains forced public schools to close for days in Dixmoor.
The bigger story is that water and sewer systems in many towns seem to constantly teeter on the verge of failure. In addition to Dixmoor, other towns repeatedly making news for water problems include Blue Island, Harvey, Robbins and University Park.
Mayors in several communities recently said it would cost up to $100 million per town to fix long-standing problems by replacing century old water pipes.
There seems little chance that local, county or state government could ever marshal resources needed to address aging, decaying water lines on such a large scale. Local officials are turning to congressional representatives for help obtaining federal funds for the work.
The problem is that neglected infrastructure is in need of replacement all over America. Jackson, a city of 150,000 people and the capital of Mississippi, was under a boil order this week after freezing temperatures ruptured water pipes. Earlier this year heavy rains caused the city’s water system to partially collapse.
Americans take for granted access to clean, safe drinking water. Communities with means and vision have replaced and modernized systems bit by bit as they were able. But many in the south suburbs and elsewhere lacked sufficient resources to cover routine operating expenses and personnel costs.
The bad news is that in many towns, the best public works departments can do is patch breaks in failing systems and hope to get by from day to day. The good news is that county and state leaders have been working with municipal officials for years to identify needs and help them apply for grants and other resources.
That planning made a difference three years ago when the pandemic hit and Congress approved billions of dollars in funding to help communities. Leaders like Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle had laid the groundwork to distribute funding using equity as a key consideration.
Equity means steering a greater share of funds toward places that have chronically been harmed by unjust practices.
Others, like Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, have dispatched teams of researchers to produce studies that showed how tax and housing policies favored the rich and drained wealth from working class people in the south suburbs.
At the state level, lawmakers finally addressed disparities in how public schools are funded by creating the evidence-based Property Tax Relief Grant program. The program has been particularly beneficial to homeowners and school districts in the south suburbs.
Collectively, government has identified and addressed unfair policies and systems that punished people in the south suburbs. Newer programs and funding formulas were created to boost investment and give the Southland a chance to succeed through growth and economic development.
Planners sought to slow, stop and ultimately reverse a downward spiral of population declines and private business disinvestment due to high property taxes. One of government’s tools to accomplish this is infrastructure investment.
All these measures were in place in late 2021 when President Joe Biden signed into law a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. The law gives communities in Illinois and throughout the nation the chance to compete for grants to pay for much-needed improvements.
Many municipal leaders spent 2022 working on applications and pursuing grants in hopes of obtaining their share of federal funding to replace water and systems. Despite the unprecedented level of federal investment, the supply of funds is nowhere near enough to meet demand.
Robbins showed it could secure significant federal funding earlier this year when the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and Army Corps of Engineers announced a $20 million flood control project that will create new recreational and potential economic development opportunities.
A big story to watch in 2023 and beyond is how communities in the Southland benefit from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Local leaders ought to display the type of gratitude and humility shown by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he recently thanked Congress for funds to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked war.
“Your money is not charity,” Zelenskyy told Congress. “It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”
Similarly, suburban officials need to show they will be responsible stewards for any federal funding that makes its way to the Southland to rebuild infrastructure.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.