By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – A constitutional amendment that’s on the Nov. 8 ballot asks Illinois voters if they want to limit how gas tax and vehicle registration fees are spent.

The so-called Safe Roads Amendment would require those funds be spent on roads and bridges. So State Sen. Bill Brady, where’s all that money going now?

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Brady on WJBC.

“The biggest area that, frankly, most of our money has gone has been into the Medicaid funding,” Brady said. “That’s the fastest-growing area of our budget.”

Brady, R-Bloomington, told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, downstate has suffered the most from this raiding of funds because Chicago area roads can use toll road money.

“What we saw under both (Govs.) Quinn and Blagojevich is not unlike siphoning education dollars away from our school districts downstate for theirs,” Brady said.

Brady said the measure would tie lawmakers’ hands, but he said in this case, that’s a good thing.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].