Pritzker doubled your gas tax and is sitting on the money
The law promised major infrastructure improvements, but the state’s roads aren’t in any better shape than when it took effect seven years ago.
The state has collected billions of dollars in taxes for road improvements from the massive 2019 Rebuild Illinois law, but drivers aren’t seeing the benefits.
Illinois is taking in tax dollars faster than it’s spending them on improving infrastructure, and the roads are in no better shape than they were seven years ago, when the hallmark legislation of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first term took effect.
Despite Road Fund revenue growing an average of 14% a year under the bill, fund expenditures grew by an average of just 5% yearly.
What’s more, most of that increased spending was front-loaded in the first two years of the program. Since 2022, Road Fund outlays have increased just 1.3% a year on average, not even the rate of inflation.
In other words, since passing Rebuild Illinois, the state is collecting more money for roads, but it isn’t spending more money on roads.
The Illinois Department of Transportation did not respond to the question of why spending on state roads and bridges appears to have leveled off.
Meanwhile, a “lockbox” provision in the Illinois Constitution prevents Road Fund money from being diverted to non-transportation spending (in theory). That, coupled with the imbalance between revenues and expenditures, has left the fund flush with cash. At the end of fiscal 2025 it held $3.7 billion.
One pitfall of this is that a massive lump of cash sitting in the fund motivates lawmakers to find questionable ways around the lockbox — for instance, holding back revenues raised from gas sales from the Road Fund in the first place.
Last year, lawmakers used more than $1 billion from the Road Fund to bail out the Regional Transportation Authority. Though not technically violating the lockbox provision, as the RTA is transportation, the move made construction unions mad and arguably violated the spirit of Rebuild Illinois: to fix roads and bridges.
Also, to win support from those unions, the law includes the potential for the largest passenger toll hike in Illinois history.
Rebuild Illinois was presented as a way to improve state infrastructure, yet 20% of Illinois highways were below “acceptable” condition in 2024, according to federal data — the same as when the law passed in 2019.
To fund improvements, Pritzker doubled the state gas tax to 38 cents a gallon and provided for automatic annual increases linked to inflation. The law includes no obligation to pause those increases when revenues exceed expenditures or when the Road Fund balance reaches a certain level.
In fact, while tying increases to inflation, the law does not even permit a decrease in the (admittedly unlikely) event of deflation.
Rebuild Illinois unfairly burdens the middle class with perpetual tax increases, forcing families to bear the cost of economic downturns twice: first through the effects of inflation and second through tax hikes directly caused by that inflation. Now the state has shown it cannot effectively use that extra money anyway.
Short of repealing the taxes and fees in Rebuild Illinois, lawmakers could at least pass a sunset amendment, forcing a vote every few years on whether the endless tax hikes should continue.
Instead, the Illinois Tollway is looking to double down on this mistake by tying toll hikes to inflation as well.
To ask the Illinois Tollway to reject this structure for toll roads, use the form here.
To contact your lawmakers about repealing or amending Rebuild Illinois, use our lookup tool here.