“…JUST ENOUGH TO WET MY BEAK…”

8/25/11

One of the justifications the Illinois Tollway board used for its 87.5% (!) increase in tolls is that, even after the increase, tolls in Illinois will be in the bottom third in the nation on a per mile basis.

One would think that having among the lowest tolls in the nation would be a point of pride and a useful, albeit limited, tool for attracting and retaining business and would be especially salient given our position as one of the nation’s key transportation hubs. Apparently, though, only the average voter or the typical businessman, the people who pay the bills, sees low tolls as an advantage and a selling point. The politicians see our being one of the most lightly tolled states as an opportunity to further wet their already drenched beaks; after all, the relatively low costs of traversing our area’s tollways is one of the few areas in which our politicians are not keeping up with their out of state brethren in reaching deeper into the citizenry’s pockets.