Drivers have less than 2 weeks to weigh in on endless toll hikes, years of congestion
Illinois drivers have only a short window to comment on a $26.5 billion capital plan that includes the largest passenger tollway hike in state history.
Drivers face up to 15 years of additional construction and congestion on Illinois toll roads under the system’s proposed capital plan.
They’ll also pay toll hikes continuing long after that.
The Driving Connections plan, announced in June, would spur projects on the Illinois Tollway system until 2042. The $26.5 billion plan would be funded with proposed toll hikes that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed off on six months before the plan was released.
Former Tollway board member and state Sen. Bill Morris told the Daily Herald that “it appears they decided to raise tolls, and then they threw this together quickly for justification.”
The Tollway proposes raising tolls starting Jan. 1 by about 45 cents per toll for passenger drivers and 30% for commercial drivers. It would be the largest passenger toll hike in state history.
You can tell the Tollway Board to reject the tax hike here.
The board is hosting public meetings until July 24 and taking public comments online until noon Aug. 3. The next regular board meeting at which the hike could be approved is Aug. 19.
Lawmakers driven by road needs or union politics?
The proposed toll hike is tied to politics around last year’s mass-transit bailout. Lawmakers redirected about $1 billion a year from the Road Fund toward Chicago-area public transportation, a move opposed by construction unions objecting to losing that road money. The toll hike became the price for labor union support.
House Speaker Chris Welch said unions wanted something to point to that would “help keep working people working and keep roads getting repaired.”
Pritzker appoints the tollway board, and two of its members hold leadership positions in construction unions.
The Driving Connections plan would fund road-widening, reconstruction, bridge work and congestion relief across interstates 355, 88, 294, 80, 94, 90 and the Route 390/I-490 O’Hare-area projects.
Many of those toll roads have recently seen extended periods of construction.
I-294 remains tied up in Central Tri-State work, I-90 was modernized during the previous capital plan and Route 390/I-490 work has been going on for years.
Illinois spent $90,400 per lane-mile in 2023 on state-owned roads — about $16,700 more than the Reason Foundation’s model calculated it should have cost.
Drivers pay more despite record revenues
As part of the proposed increase in tolls, the plan includes automatic inflation-linked increases every two years, starting in 2029.
For a commuter who passes through two tolls a day for 50 weeks, the proposed passenger hike would an extra $225 to those trips in 2027.
Tollway revenues are at record highs. Since 1973 — the year the system was supposed to become free to drivers — the agency has collected more in tolls each year than it needed to operate and maintain the system. During that time, the tollway has collected over $22 billion more in tolls than it needed for maintenance and other non-capital expenses.
Apart from the Tollway, the state also is already collecting more money for transportation than it is spending on roads. Road Fund revenue grew an average of 14% a year under Rebuild Illinois, while expenditures grew just 5% annually. That’s due in large part to the automatic increase mechanism — the same thing the state now wants to do with tolls.
Now is the time to act
Drivers deserve clear answers about why the agency needs more money, where the existing record-high revenue has gone and which projects truly require raising the cost travel for Illinois residents.
The public-comment period is the opportunity to demand those answers.
You can tell the Tollway Board to reject the tax hike here.