It’s time for another update on past topics, led by a reflection on Indiana lawmakers voting against enacting new political maps before the 2026 Congressional elections.

As noted Oct. 29, Illinois lawmakers – and especially Gov. JB Pritzker – had ample opportunity to take the high road and announce our state wouldn’t do any further gerrymandering regardless of what happened in 49 other states, even one on our eastern border.

A hard no was always the right answer. It’s disappointing that anyone allowed the option of Indiana’s decisions affecting our own.

RAILROAD REACTION: Thursday’s column about new plans for interurban rail lines in Southeastern Wisconsin, with eyes on Northeastern Illinois, drew a response from Polo’s Larry Plachno, who invoked the good old days:

“The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transport Company built their M-R-K line [I think under John Beggs]. It provided frequent non-polluting electric rail service from Kenosha and Racine to Milwaukee. My memory is that the line was briefly owned by Greyhound in its later years.

“When I was younger, I was able to board a train on the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad in Chicago’s Loop and ride through Waukegan, Kenosha and Racine to Milwaukee. The non-polluting electric trains ran hourly. Every third train was a streamlined Electroliner with a tavern lounge car that served electroburgers, sandwiches and drinks.

“What they have today is a joke compared to what we had in earlier years… and what we had was non-polluting.”

SELLING ASSETS: Way back on April 30, I wrote about the folly of state lawmakers spending money to build a facility without appropriating money for operations. The archetypal example has long been the super maximum prison built in Thomson for $140 million at the turn of the century. Gov. George Ryan delayed opening to save $50 million in annual operating costs, then lawmakers and succeeding governors kept kicking the can until the federal government took it off Illinois’ hands in 2012 for $165 million.

The April column addressed Western Illinois University’s Quad Cities Innovation Campus. The state built the Moline facility in 2012, but never budgeted annual expenses. Senate Bill 1308 would’ve appropriated $7.2 million, but it never got a committee vote. Now? WIU is leasing two QC campus buildings to a local school district through June 2027, and last week, trustees voted to sell a third building. It has consolidated all Moline operations to Riverfront Hall’s 60,000 square feet.

There are a lot of other factors at play here, and maybe the entire operation would’ve faltered even with better state support from the get-go. Regardless, this is another reminder that the sight of politicians with hard hats, gold-plated shovels and oversized scissors to snip ceremonial ribbons is cause not for unbridled celebration, but healthy skepticism.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.