SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – As expected, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has signed into law the massive state infrastructure rebuilding plan that has been kicked about Springfield for years. (Here’s our story on the issue last week.)

Quinn’s office formally announced the signing a little while ago, after a ceremony in Chicago. They’re now calling it a “$31 billion” plan – which is interesting, because as of last Friday, it was $29 billion plan. We’ll try and get to the bottom of that.

The “capital plan,” as it’s called in government circles, will use expanded gaming, new targeted sales taxes and paritial privatization of the state lottery to fund bonds that will provide billions of dollars and thousands of jobs for projects around the state, including the planned Mississippi River bridge in the Metro East.

The need for the program - both to create jobs, and to revamp the state’s crumbling roads, bridges and other infrastructure - is just about the only thing that most political leaders on all sides of the spectrum agree upon in Springfield. (The only real opponents are anti-gambling activists, and hard-right conservatives who don’t like the tax hikes in it.) Quinn’s signature is clearly designed to put lawmakers in a cheery mood when they return to Springfield Tuesday to try again to patch together a new state budget.