By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

SPRINGFIELD — One local businessman is hoping the Illinois House and Senate passes a bill that will protect Illinois motor fuel taxes in the leaking underground storage tank fund — but believes that until more drastic measures are taken, he still won’t be getting paid on time.

“The damage has been done,” United Science Industries owner Jay Koch said. “Money has already been taken out of the program. ... As a result of that, the program is $64 million in arrears. [The state] pays against that by $4.5 million per month, and as they pay that $4.5 million down, they receive new claims against the revenue stream, so the problem isn’t getting any better. They need to take other action, get money from somewhere else, get their bills paid and then when House Bill 770 passes, it would protect the fund in the future.”

Koch faced down former Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Nov. 20 during a gubernatorial stop in the King City. What Koch got for his trouble was an empty promise from Blagojevich on reimbursements for nearly $20 million owed United Science Industries and its subsidiaries for tank clean up work already performed in the state.

Shortly after Koch personally informed the governor of the debt owed by the state, Blagojevich was arrested, impeached and removed from office — with the Senate citing in part the former governor’s diversions from the MFT funds to pay for his health care program as one of reasons for the impeachment.

“We receive payments every week, but they are 550 days from the time we submit the claims to the time we get paid,” Koch said. “As an example, as we sit here today, we’re getting paid for work we did in the summer of 2007. I can barely remember what jobs we were doing in 2007.”

The state got behind in its payments gradually, Koch said, until Blagojevich got into office.

“It started pretty quickly after Blagojevich got into office, and then accelerated in 2004, and has gotten incrementally worse each year since then until we are where we are,” Koch explained. “It was all part of the shell game our former governor played and it has to stop. I’ve been in contact with the new governor’s office, and I believe they also feel this has to stop. It won’t be easy for them, over the last four, five or six years, there has been so much intermingling of funds at the state that it’s a mess. ... In the meantime, people and businesses are suffering. I think something has to be done now, as emergency measures to get this sorted out. And, it is an emergency. ... The Illinois economy is even weaker than the national economy because of the shenanigans that have taken place over the past four, five and six years.”

Koch said the late payments in the millions of dollars have forced him into excessive levels of debt.

“It’s forced me to take on their debt,” Koch said. “The state has forced their debts onto the balance sheet of business and small business. It’s very disheartening. Unlike a private party, who, if they fail to pay you, you have some recourse against, the way our state system is set up, we don’t have any recourse against the state. We’re forced to sit on the side and deal with whatever they throw at you. They don’t have to play by the same rules they set up for everyone else.”

Last week, Koch joined State Representative John Cavaletto (R-Salem) in presenting House Bill 770 — which passed the House State Government Committee with a unanimous vote.

“I feel very strongly that dedicated funds should be left alone so they can serve the purpose they were meant to serve,” Cavaletto told the committee. “Here we have honest, hard working people doing a service for our state in cleaning up dangerous leaking storage tanks and the State of Illinois refuses to honor its obligations. Something needs to be done to ensure that these people are getting paid for the work they do on behalf of the state.”

According to information from the legislator, more than $54 million has been swept from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank fund since 2003.

A synopsis of the bill as introduced states the bill amends the Environmental Protection Act and provides that the Underground Storage Tank Fund is not subject to sweeps, administrative charges or charge backs or any other fiscal or budgetary maneuver that would in any way transfer funds into another fund of the state.

Koch said if the state finds revenue to bring the fund back up to its levels that are owed, he believes that’s when HB770 would ensure the funds owed by the state are not diverted for other programs.

The bill has not been voted on by the House. If it gets passage in the House, it would then face a vote in the Senate. If the Senate passes it, the bill would then go to Governor Pat Quinn’s desk for signature.