McHenry County Blog

Back when Governor Dan Walker was in office, the gas crisis was in full swing.

One day while the General Assembly was in session, he ordered the speed limit in Illinois to be dropped to 55 miles per hour.

On the way home, I was dutifully driving 55 MPH and a State Police car whizzed past me.

Though some sense of perverse duty I caught up to him flashed my lights and he pulled over.

“Did you know Governor Walker has lowered the speed limit to 55?” I asked.

He didn’t, so I suggested he check it out and drove on.

Now State Senator Jim Oberweis has passed a bill through the State Senate that would set the speed limit on Interstates to 70 MPH.

And it’s on the House floor.

The Chicago Tribune’s Editorial Board members editorialized against it after an article about Oberweis’ accomplishment made the front page.

I have to wonder if any those Board members drive outside of the Chicago metropolitan area.

But, it’s not just Chicago influencials who don’t want people driving at a legal 70 miles per hour on Illinois’ boring interstates.

Back when Governor Jim Edgar was in office, the speed limit on Tollways outside of the six-county area was 70 MPH.

That didn’t satisfy Edgar, who did very little traveling on interstates. (He flew in state planes.)

Without asking the General Assembly, he lowed that speed limit to 65 MPH.

After all, he did appoint the members of the Toll Highway Authority and, when a Governor asks for something, he usually gets it.

At least the Tribune admits, “To an extent, Illinois would be playing catch-up. More than 30 states already allow motorists to travel 70 or 75 mph. Utah allows 80 mph.” It also notes that Texas is at 85 MPH.

One can understand why the Tribune would like to make is harder to get out of Illinois. After all, it sells few papers along Interstates leading to places better to live.

Oberweis had been luck promoting a 70 mile per hour speed limit than I did when I advanced it as part of my campaign for Governor on the Libertarian Party slate in 2002.

Maybe it’s been enough years that common sense will prevail.

Elgin’s Daily Courier-News reports that newly-installed Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen is insisting on local voters approving a referendum in 2014 before giving his support to build a toll bridge south of Algonquin.

Pretty much every municipal board, plus McHenry County’s has passed resolutions in support of the toll bridge, but Lauzen wants what Courier-News reporter Matt Brennan characterizes as “hard evidence of public support.”

I guess he doesn’t think village board members’ votes are good enough to provide “hard evidence.”

I would agree.

As an indication that municipal don’t always speak for their constituents, the Crystal Lake City Council voted to endorse the 1974 Regional Transportation Authority referendum, but the voters in McHenry County voted over 90% against the proposal.

My guess is that most local residents don’t even know that local officials might be planning to indenture them with paying toll taxes twenty years (or more, if the tolls are continued after they are paid off–maintenance has to paid for, you know).

$1.50 each way during rush hour, $1 at other times.

A press release from State Rep. Mike Tryon:

State Rep. Mike Tryon Joins Governor Quinn for I-90-Route 47 Full Interchange Ground Breaking

HUNTLEY…..State Representative Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) joined Governor Pat Quinn in Huntley on Monday for the official ground breaking for the long-awaited full interchange at Interstate I-90 and Route 47.

Tryon, a long-time proponent of the project, said he was pleased to see the project finally getting underway.

“The construction of a full-access interchange at I-90 and Route 47 in Huntley is an issue I have been working on since I became a State Representative in 2004,” Tryon said. “Today is a great day for the Village of Huntley, and also for McHenry and Kane Counties.”

The estimated cost for the interchange is $69 million, and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) will pay half of the costs. McHenry County, Kane County and the Village of Huntley will split the bill for the remaining costs.

IDOT predicts a summer of 2013 completion date for the project.

The project will include the construction of six new ramps with all-electronic toll plazas, construction of a new seven-lane bridge carrying Route 47 over Interstate I-90, and many traffic signal and lighting improvements.

“Making this project a reality really was a team effort,” said Tryon. “Officials from the Village of Huntley, from McHenry and Kane Counties, and from IDOT are all to be commended on the work that led to today’s groundbreaking.”

Today, the intersection offers only a partial interchange, with ramp access for motorists traveling to and from the east on I-90 only.

According to Tryon, at least one lane in each direction of moving traffic will remain open throughout the period of construction.

“This interchange project will have a tremendous impact on the economic development of the Route 47 corridor through Huntley,” said Tryon.

“With full access in both directions, Huntley is going to become a much sought-after location for businesses, restaurants and all kinds of economic activity.”

Thanks for Huntley Patch, I discovered the following about Governor Pat Quinn’s almost venturing into McHenry County.

“…the groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27 at 13951 Quality Drive (take Route 47 to Jim Dhamer Drive and go west, then go south on Quality Drive).”

The tollway interchange is in Kane County.

You may remember that area Republicans and non-partisan officials did not oppose Governor Quinn’s 88% toll tax hike and the Main Stream Media let him off the political hook when reporting on what his appointees did.

With regard to the touted benefits of the interchange, read what the Illinois Tollway says,

“The Illinois Route 47 Interchange Project will create more opportunity for continued economic development along Illinois Route 47 and will open up access between the Tollway and a regional north-south transportation route. Currently, existing ramps only provide access for drivers traveling to and from the east on I-90. These ramps were constructed in the early 1970′s.

“The project is estimated at $69 million with the Tollway funding half the cost and IDOT, McHenry County, Kane County and Huntley funding the remainder.”

The following article appeared in the Chicago Tribune today.

It tells of discipline a Tollway employee was given for using his official car for personal purposes.

That doesn’t happen in McHenry County, right?

Wait a minute.

Wasn’t that what an IRS audit of Grafton Township discovered?

And, of course, no one would use a government vehicle to attend a political fund raiser, right?

A press release from Jim Tobin:

TAXPAYERS TRY TO STOP LISA MADIGAN’S “HIGHWAY ROBBERY”

CHICAGO–Plaintiffs against the Ill. State Toll Highway Authority filed an amended complaint today in Cook County Circuit Court. Plaintiffs consist of James L. Tobin, Christina Marie Tobin, Kenneth Malo, John Guild, Rae Ann McNeilly, Paul Cassidy, Glenn Westphal and Carol Westphal.

Plaintiffs are seeking a Declaratory Judgment, injunctive relief, and redress for the violation of their civil rights by the defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983, et seq. The Authority raised cash tolls by approximately 90% as of January 1.

Representing the Authority is the office of Ill. Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (D), daughter of Chicago machine boss and Ill. House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D).

“What Lisa Madigan is getting away with is nothing less than highway robbery,” said plaintiff James Tobin.

The amended complaint included the following points:

• The Commission was created by an act of the Illinois General Assembly as an instrumentality and administrative agency of the State of Illinois in 1953. On October 25, 1955, the Tollway Commission adopted a resolution authorizing a single series of bonds aggregating $415,000,000 to finance the construction of what it described as “The Northern Illinois Toll Highway,” which was to consist of three separate routes.
• In its first full year of operation the annual toll revenues collected amounted to $14,536,000. Since 2000, the Tollway has collected nearly $9 Billion ($8,621,360,000) in toll revenues from the users of its toll highways. The majority of that amount was collected from the three routes where the revenue bonds were already paid.
• 

  Jim Tobin

  The Tollway has indicated it now has some 13 series of outstanding bonds, with an aggregate total of over $4 Billion ($4,066,675,000) and with at least one series of those bonds not maturing until January 1, 2034. It continues to issue bonds without giving due consideration to the intent of the legislature that the Tollway should dissolve when the original bonds were repaid.

“Rather than paying off the tollway bonds and disbanding, the overpaid administrators keep issuing new bonds, so that the bonds of the authority never get paid off as the Ill. Legislature intended,” said Tobin. “This way the bureaucrats, tollway employees and politically-connected contractors rake in the dough year after year.”

Illinois Toll Taxes went up 88% yesterday, so I went looking for any mention that Democratic Party Governor Pat Quinn had been given responsibility for it.

The anonymous Illinois Toll Highway Authority Board members took the heat.

The photo in the article is of a toll booth worker, who said she didn’t take any abuse either.

Is Governor Quinn going to be a Teflon governor?

The preferred routes to southeastern McHenry County may change for cheapskates like me when they drive to and from Chicago.

That’s because the Pat Quinn Administration’s tolls at the Route 31 Exit will almost double from 40 cents to 75 cents, if one goes all the way to Randall Road, as we usually do.

80 cents to get from Chicago to Crystal Lake under Governor Rod Blagojevich’s tolls…if one rented an I-PASS.  (I consider interest on the mandatory deposit “rent.”)

$1.50 under Blagojevich successor Pat Quinn.

Tolls at Barrington Road, however, will “only” be 45 cents. It’s now 25 cents now, so I could save 20 cents a trip.

There the increase is only a 44% one, not 88%.

Since 45 cents is less than 75 cents, that’s the exit I’ll be taking.

For regular commuters, the savings would be about $80 a year for driving through Barrington Hills on Route 62, also known as Algonquin Road.

When the Skinner family drives to the Wisconsin Dells, we’ll drive up Route 14 to Harvard and across to the Wisconsin freeway.

That will save $2.45 both ways using I-PASS, assuming we would otherwise enter on at Route 20 south of Marengo, as we often have, and assuming I’m reading the doubled fee structure correctly.

Enough for another glass of wine…which is better than whining about the rip-off we call the Illinois Tollway.

= = = = =
It’s hard to think about the Illinois Tollways without remembering that none of the Motor Fuel Taxes charged by state government go to defray toll taxes. Instead the approximately $110 million a year in MFT is diverted to state highway purposes.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 45% comes back to the six-county Chicagoland, while it has about 56% of the vehicles and traffic.

Obviously, a Downstate rip-off.

It also should be remembered that local Republican leaders did not oppose the Toll Tax hike. It was hard to find Republican opposition anywhere…except yours truly.

A press release from Jim Tobin, President of United Taxpayers of America:

SPIT ON THE LAW

CHICAGO–Taxpayers United of America (TUA) President Jim Tobin called Tuesday’s hearing of his lawsuit against the Illinois Tollway Authority a “spectacle,” and labeled Judge Rita Novak’s decision yesterday rejecting an attempt to block the 90% percent tollway tax hike scheduled to go into effect Jan.1 a “callous, politically-driven decision.”

“Novak essentially gave tollway customers, as well as the law, no consideration,” said Tobin.

Novak dismissed a lawsuit challenging the tollway’s authority to raise tolls.

“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.”

Attorney General Lisa Madigan is the daughter of powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-22, Chicago).

“This is a blatant case of capitalist cronyism,” said Tobin.

“Overpaid tollway bureaucrats collect $100,000-plus salaries each year from tolls. When they retire, they continue to suck dollars from the floundering State retirement system. Michael Madigan’s House Democrats voted for the huge 67% state income tax increase this year, all of which is going into the State retirement system that is making many retired government employees rich.”

“The government in Springfield needs a thorough housecleaning.

“Voters should throw all Springfield incumbents from office, and then pay particular attention to the officeholders who play along or encourage this kind of corruption.”

Tobin plans to appeal Novak’s ruling on February 7, 2012.

A press release from Jim Tobin’s Taxpayers United of America:

COURT TO RULE ON GIANT TOLL TAX INCREASE DECEMBER 20TH

December 20, 2011: Judge Rita Novak, of the Cook County Circuit Court, will hear arguments to stop the impending January 1st toll tax increase.

Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America, (“TUA”), has filed suit to:

1. stop the increase
2. order the Tollway Authority to comply with the law that requires it to convert toll highways into freeways and
3. dissolve the Tollway Authority itself.

The suit also challenges the doubling of tolls for cash users, and seeks permission to proceed as a class action on behalf of all tollway users. The December 20th hearing will decide whether the Circuit Court of Cook County will permit the Tollway Authority to virtually double tolls and to convert the Elgin-O’Hare Freeway into a toll highway.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office is representing the Tollway. She has asked the court to throw out Tobin’s case in its entirety.

“We are prepared to file an appeal if Madigan convinces the judge to throw out the case,” stated Tobin. “The law is clear and we will continue to fight for millions of taxpayers affected by this blatant disregard for the law.”

The hearing will be held at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2402 of the Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602.

For more information visit TaxpayersUnitedofAmerica.org. For press inquiries, please contact Jim Tobin (773) 354-2076 or (312) 427-5128.