Prepare for the Illinois Tollway’s new money grab

In less than a year, suburban drivers have been dealt a double-whammy.

First, the state road fund was drained and turned into mass transit cash for Chicagoland. Now, Illinois Tollway bureaucrats want to tax motorists at least another 45 cents to drive on highways that seem to be perpetually under construction.

The latest ruse to get loose change out of our pockets and into tollway coffers is slated to take effect in January. The newfound money will be used to underwrite an ambitious 15-year, $26.5 billion construction and maintenance scheme, making up for some of that lost mass transit funding originally earmarked for highway work.

Our Wisconsin relatives have been chortling at us for decades as we have meekly accepted what the tollway system doles out. They have no Dairyland tollways because Wisconsin public servants waited for federal highway money to build their interstates.

Unlike Illinois pols, who moved swiftly in the 1950s to fund road construction through the Illinois Toll Highway Authority. Many still remember that six-county motorists were promised that those roads would be free once the initial building bonds on the original tollways were paid off. That’s when tolls cost a dime when thrown in tollbooth collection baskets, way before open-road tolling.

Another disappointment living in the Land of Lincoln. If you’ve traveled in Packerland lately, you’ll also discover cheaper fuel. That coincides with a flush Badger State treasury with hefty surpluses due to up-north fiscal discipline.

While the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, the latest rail-bus configuration for the region, remains in transition from the Regional Transportation Authority, the money will be rolling in. Under the transit bill signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in December, a universal fare system is supposed to be set by July 2027.

NITA officially came into being on June 1. As part of the transit-overhaul package, the bill urged the Tollway to hike tolls. Yet, diverting road fund monies has meant no fare increase for Chicago Transit Authority, Metra rail and Pace bus riders.

Suburban drivers and other tollway users are underwriting their rides. So much so that a CTA official indicated earlier this month the agency is mulling expanding the Yellow Line — the old Skokie Swift line– from Dempster Street farther north in Skokie to Golf Road or Old Orchard Road.

A chatty CTA planner told Skokie officials, according to an account in Pioneer Press: “NITA is unlocking so much money for us, and so much opportunity for us to think about how we can evolve the transit service.”

While the CTA plans for static fares and expanded services, despite ridership below pre-pandemic levels, I-Pass owners (most tollway users) will find it will cost more to travel on some of the 294 miles of tollways across a dozen northern Illinois counties. Commercial vehicle tolls for I-Pass users are proposed to increase by 30%.

Additionally, beginning in 2029, toll rates will be adjusted every other year to account for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index. After the proposed rate increase, the Tollway’s average passenger toll for I-PASS customers will increase from an average of seven cents a mile to about 11 cents a mile. The national average for tolls is 16 cents per mile.

Toll Highway officials point out the hike in tolls is the first since 2012, which supported the agency’s capital program, Move Illinois. Proposed from 2027 to 2042, the new plan has been dubbed “Driving Connections.”

During the multi-year program, Driving Connections will have projects across all five tollways. Officials say it will fuel the region’s economy by creating thousands of engineering and construction jobs, while eventually saving drivers’ time and money. So they say.

If there is good news, no major construction projects are planned on the Tri-State Tollway in Lake County in the near future. The closest work, $3 billion in road rehabilitation and bridge reconstruction, is set for the Tri-State from Balmoral Avenue in Rosemont north to the Edens Spur on Deerfield’s border. The largest spending amounts are more than $6.6 billion set aside for the Veterans Memorial Tollway (Interstate 355), and $3.5 billion for work on the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88).

Public hearings on the toll hikes are set to be held across the Tollway region before an expected rubber-stamp vote by the toll board. If you are irate at costing more to drive tollways, the Lake County public hearing is scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on July 13 at the Greenbelt Cultural Center Banquet Hall, Green Bay Road and Pulaski Drive, North Chicago.

For many suburban drivers, there’s little alternative to heading south quickly. Route 41 is one, although that limited-access freeway has the same number of lanes today as when it first opened to traffic in the late 1930s.

That alone tells us much about Illinois highway planning.

Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. sellenews@gmail.com. X @sellenews