Ah, the joy of Christmas. The season for giving and caring. The holidays will soon be upon us, and it will be a welcome break from all this snow and what seems to be the never-ending need to shovel sidewalks and scrape ice off our windshields.

The winter season brings cold, snow, ice, and holidays, but let’s not forget one of the funniest Christmas movies ever produced, National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation”.

Who can forget Clark Griswold’s never-ending futility when dealing with the outdoor Christmas lights or the scene where Eddie consoles Clark, who, when realizing that his Christmas bonus was a subscription to a jelly of the month club rather than money, with his statement that the jelly of the month club is the “gift that keeps on giving.”

About the gift that keeps on giving: Did you know that a state agency in Illinois provides us with substantial support here in the Sauk Valley? That agency is the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), which supports us year-round.

As the year comes to a close, communities in the Sauk Valley area are working with IDOT to secure funds for public works road maintenance projects for the upcoming year.

These funds come from the gas tax we pay at the pump, and some of that revenue is returned to our communities. This gas tax revenue funds road maintenance and construction throughout the Sauk Valley.

Complain about taxes as much as you like, but much of the gas tax collected is returned to communities through a per capita formula.

Motor Fuel Tax is collected by the state, and IDOT receives more than 50% of the annual total. IDOT then distributes 50% of that amount to municipalities based on the per capita formula. The other 50% of Motor Fuel tax funds IDOT retains is spent on transportation projects throughout the state.

I understand it’s hard to think positively about the gas tax when our closest neighbor across the Mississippi River sometimes pays 15, 20, or even 30 cents less per gallon than we do. However, there are many roads in this state that need to be maintained.

Here in Illinois, the IDOT transportation plan for 2026-2032 is a $50.6 billion behemoth that details the outlays for projects that involve highways, railways, and waterways. Iowa’s most recent transportation plan is less than 1/10 of that, coming in at $4.3 billion.

Illinois taxes more and shares more, but Iowa taxes less and has less to share. That’s why their gas tax is less than ours.

Additionally, even after sharing these tax gas funds with communities in the Sauk Valley, IDOT will allocate a significant part of its annual budget to road projects that will benefit those communities.

In Sterling, IDOT will repave Fourth Street from 19th Avenue to First Avenue and install ADA ramps at the intersections. Yes, this includes repaving what I call the “blacktop patch quilt,” which has claimed many tires over the years and is located between 10th and 9th avenues.

This will be a much-needed upgrade to Fourth Street, improving mobility for disabled pedestrians traveling from nearby neighborhoods to the downtown business district.

The clincher about that project is that Grandon Civic Center Park is located on Fourth Street, and enhancing pedestrian mobility along Fourth Street from 19th Avenue to First Avenue will give more people the opportunity to enjoy the Sterling Municipal Band Summer Concert Series.

In other communities, IDOT will perform roadwork on interstates, highways, state routes, bridges, pedestrian paths, public transit, passenger rail, and other projects.

From city streets to gravel country roads. The gas tax we pay funds road maintenance, helps people get to work, school, and medical care, and brings food products from farm to market, ensuring our food security.

In 2024-2025, IDOT reports that winter plowing services covered 102 counties, plowed 45,000 lane miles, and used over 300,000 tons of salt.

300,000 tons of salt! I use about 10 pounds of ice melt at home. Jeesh!

As the old saying goes, there are two seasons in Illinois: winter and construction. So, you can expect many construction zones this summer in the Sauk Valley.

IDOT recently released a Multi-Year Improvement Plan outlining the projects scheduled over six years and shared it on its website. To explore the projects planned for your area, please visit idot.illinois.gov/transportation.

These IDOT projects create jobs for our local road construction businesses, excavators, asphalt plants, engineering firms, and planning teams, among others involved in road work. To work on these projects, people fill their gas tanks, pay the gas tax, and drive to work.

Last summer, the construction crew that rebuilt the street I live on here in Sterling came from Mt. Morris – proof that these gas tax funds go a long way to keeping people employed and able to provide for their families throughout the Sauk Valley.

So, say what you will about the gas tax. “It’s too high,” “It’s too much,” and “Why do we pay this much for gas?” But believe it or not, a lot of the gas tax we pay at the pump does make its way back into our communities.

The gas tax benefits everyone; it helps fund our roads, and even though we pay it, thanks to IDOT, it is the gift that we keep on giving to ourselves every day of the year.

Jim Wise is a Sterling city councilman.