Judge Tosses Lawsuit To Stop Toll Hikes
Jim Tobin is mad.
Last week, judge Rita Novak dismissed a lawsuit filed by Tobin and others on December 20th, that questioned the Illinois Tollway Authority’s ability to raise toll rates and declined to issue an injunction to stop the 87% toll increase slated to go into effect on January 1st.
“The hearing was a spectacle,” said Tobin. “Tollway users were represented by noted attorney Andrew Spiegel, and State Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) must have been worried, because she had six — that’s right — six of her taxpayer paid staff there to represent the Tollway Authority.”
Tobin is the founder of Taxpayers United for America (TUA) , a non-profit group that had just celebrated it’s 35th year of fighting higher taxes.
Tobin’s lawsuit challenged the agency’s authority to raise tolls based on how the Toll Highway Act was originally written back in the 1950′s. It’s Tobin’s view the law was not intended to allow the Tollway Authority to self-perpetuate itself. According to the lawsuit, the intent of the law was to ultimately dissolve the Tollway Authority and turn the tollways into freeways.
According to the Chicago Tribune’s account, the Tollway Authority was happy with the outcome.
“We’re very pleased with Judge Novak’s decision to dismiss this complaint against the Tollway,” the agency said.
While the Tollway Authority’s Board felt it necessary to increase the average toll cost 35 cents from 40 cents to 75 cents for I-PASS users and even more for drivers paying cash, in order to pay for $12 billion in construction projects over the next 15 years on August 25th, TUA’s Director of Outreach Rae Ann McNeilly believes its just another tax on Illinois citizens.
“This toll tax increase has nothing to do with improvements and maintenance of existing tollways and has everything to do with expanding and perpetuating the bloated bureaucracy known as the Illinois Tollway Authority,” said McNeilly. “Conventional wisdom supports tollways as a direct tax, but in Illinois, the administration of the tollway has become a cesspool of cronyism and provides high paying jobs and pensions for the friends and family of Illinois bureaucrats as well as lucrative contracts for unions who support the politicians that make the tollway leadership’s appointments.”
Tobin plans to appeal Novak’s ruling on February 7, 2012.
“We will continue this fight on behalf of millions of taxpayers,” said McNeilly. “We will either appeal this ruling or file an amended complaint. This kind of ‘Chicago Politicking’ is sucking taxpayers dry and we are prepared to fight.”
Tobin will be on CLTV to discuss this issue Friday at 6 PM.
“This toll tax increase has nothing to do with improvements and maintenance of existing tollways and has everything to do with expanding and perpetuating the bloated bureaucracy known as…”
What a demagogue this McNeilly is. This project is about adding so many improvements to the system I forget them all. But the main one is a segment that will border O’Hare on the west, creating a new business corridor and the “western access” to O’Hare that those suburbanites have been begging for over the last 20 years. McNeilly just sees an opportunity for government and union-bashing.
I don’t live out there, but I can appreciate the benefits that segment will bring to me in eased 290/294 O’Hare traffic congestion on the east, also the taxes corporate headquarters will generate.
It’s called progress. It’s called development. It’s a part of what government should be doing, and it can’t be expected to come without cost.
The judge is not about to bite the hand that feeds her.
I think if we have to pay this much to use the tollway then we should be able to legaly drive 65mph on the entire tollway system.also I294 was suppose to be made a freeway on the year 2000.
@trafficalmer, you missed the point. It’s not the McNeilly doesn’t want roads maintained and expanded as necessary. All of that can be done without tolls and without an authority that uses it’s power to perpetuate itself at the expense of the tax payer. Think of all the money that is used to run that agency. All that money would pay for a lot of maintenance. So what the toll authority is doing is asking tax payers to pay more than they have to. I don’t see where you came up with union-bashing. At a time where there are so many greedy rich folks out there, if anything we need stronger unions to protect the workers from being abused.
What about the rights of Wisconsin drivers that get scammed by using the Illinois Tollway…yet when Illinois residents come here, they pay nothing!
Tommy….Wisconsin drivers Don’t ‘Have’ to use the Illinois Tollways…
There are ways to get places without paying a toll in Illinois.
We need to gather a committee to audit these improvements. How long did it take to bring 88 from a 3 lane to a 4 lane highway? 5 years? In Orange/Riverside County along 91 they added an additional lane in about a year – part of the project included CUTTING INTO A MOUNTAIN.
Furthermore, I would love to see what goes on the books for the improvements. I used to have late nights at my office in Oak Brook, I would drive home at 2am and watch as workers would blockade a couple mile stretch of a lane along I-88 with orange cones. By 7 am, the cones were magically gone. That’s either a dummy project on the books, or suddenly the workers are strikingly more efficient.
We are entitled to see that taxes that our collected on our behalf are being spent efficiently, and not subject to a sweetheart deal between Contractor and Contractee.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many who bash the Toll Highway Authority haven’t a clue as to how it works. Not one penny of tax money has ever been spent on building, expanding or maintaining the Illinois tollway system. Indeed, even the State Police who patrol the system are paid for by the revenue generated by the tolls and not our taxes. Tolls are NOT taxes…they are user fees.
I was a rank & file hourly employee of the Authority for 25 years and I will tell you that user fee supported roads are FAR superior in efficiency that those that are funded by taxes. I think a toll increase was warranted because Illinois was indeed a bargain compared to other toll roads but I think they took too much at once.They should have spread it out over a few years.
Imagine how those who never use the tollway and downstate would feel if their state taxes and fees went up drastically to cover the cost of the tollways. You only pay for it if you use it…As it should be!
The Illinois LeechWay is legalized highway robbery.