Tollway Lease Billions

Never let it be said that legislators can’t put forward proposals that seem a bit, well, selfish.

That was the word that came to mind when I read the tollway lease distribution ideas DuPage County Republican State Senators Kirk Dillard (also DuPage GOP County Chairman) and Peter Roskam (now running for Congress).

Estimates of the amount at stake could be as high as $14 billion.

It’s not that my former colleagues should not have real fear that toll money paid by suburbanites might end up Downstate. That happens right now.

Only 43% of the money paid in gas taxes for motor fuel consumed on the tollway came back to the six-county area, as of Illinois FIRST (which I did not vote for) days in the late 1990’s. If all of it had been given to the tollway over the years, we could have freeways now.

But, it was siphoned off to build Downstate freeways, one of which I found has less traffic than the Lakewood street in front of our home. (Less than 5,000 cars a day traveled then on parts of the four-lane Route 67 in Western Illinois. Over 6,000 go past our home daily. 4-lane highways are generally justified by 20,000 cars per day.)

So, I share the DuPage County legislators’ concerns that suburbanites should be wary of a Chicago and Downstate rip-off of the billions that could come from privatizing the tollway. So does the Daily Herald in this editorial.

My thought is that the money should return to its source. (The Daily Herald editorial agrees, specifically citing McHenry County users.)

My original conception in the late 1990’s was that surveys would have to be taken to determine where drivers lived. Now, with the wide use of I-PASS transponders, that information should be readily available.

If such a common sense approach should be adopted, then I believe the money should be spent on 1500 miles of existing highways designated as highways designated Strategic Regional Arterial roads. Some are state highways like Route 176; others are county roads like Randall Road.

Plans for the SRA improvements—complete with public hearings--have been made and, if the Illinois Department of Transportation thought far enough ahead (which they don’t), these plans would be recorded in each local county to prevent growth from ruining the plans.

In any event, it seems the money should go back to the counties whose citizens paid it.

One final word: when the Randall Road exit was being considered, Kane County put up the bulk of the money. McHenry County, however, paid $250,000.

So, just because a tollway is in a given county does not mean that county should get all of the benefits of any long-term lease.

Or, for that matter, it doesn't mean that Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Democratic Party-rule legislature should be able to pick the pockets of motorists to finance the education plan to buy off the Rev. and State Senator James Meeks, as some media reports have suggested earlier.

Have fun with the Meeks-Blagojevich deal over the weekend. Or drop into McHenry County Blog.