RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Drivers on Illinois toll roads can expect to pay 45 cents more per toll starting next year, and for the first time, there will be automatic inflation-adjusted increases every other year after that.
The Illinois Tollway board's unanimous Wednesday vote to raise fares for the first time in nearly 15 years is expected to bring in an extra $1 billion each year — money the agency says is needed to fund an expanding portfolio of construction projects. The tollway's 15-year capital plan lays out $26.5 billion in projects to maintain the system and address congestion.
The new toll rates start Jan. 1.
The hike is 45 cents per passenger vehicle, raising the current most common toll of 75 cents to $1.20 — a 60% increase. Tolls will increase roughly 30% for commercial vehicles.
In an unprecedented move, the board also voted to raise future toll rates automatically every two years, tied to the rate of inflation. The increases would begin in 2029. Increases would match changes to the Consumer Price Index but would be capped at 8%.
The hike, the first since 2012, was made possible by the state's new transit funding law, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed last year. The Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act raised some Chicago-area taxes to pump an extra $1.5 billion a year to state public transit, including the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace.
A summary of proposed toll changes provided in the Illinois Tollway board meeting agenda packet.
Illinois Tollway
The transit law also redirected some of the sales tax on motor fuel from the state's Road Fund, typically used for road construction projects, to public transit. As a concession to labor groups, lawmakers granted the tollway permission to raise tolls to make up for that lost cash.
Even with the proposed toll rate increases, the toll rates for passenger vehicles will remain among the lowest in the nation, the tollway's Chief Financial Officer Cathy Williams told the board. After the hike, a passenger vehicle with an I-Pass will pay an average of 11 cents per mile; the national average is 16 cents per mile, she said.
Before the vote, tollway Executive Director Cassaundra Rouse said the agency held 13 public hearings in July on the potential toll hike that drew more than 1,100 people.
"We heard support. We heard concerns. And we heard important questions about affordability, about accountability, congestion and our responsibility to maintain the system that we already have," Rouse said.
Rouse said the vote was "significant" and "grounded in more than two years of analysis, a transparent public engagement process, and a shared commitment to maintaining one of the region's most important transportation systems."
The new funds will help finance everything from more lanes to reconstructed interchanges to upgrading fiber-optic cable, which the agency says it earns money from by selling access to utility companies.
Rouse emphasized that the funds will not be used for the state's public transit systems — a rumor she said had come up in the public hearings.
The Veterans Memorial Tollway, known as I-355, will see the largest investment in the agency's 15-year capital program — about $6.6 billion — by adding lanes around the interchange with I-88, reconstructing 17 miles of road near I-55, and adding lanes in each direction from Roosevelt Road to North Avenue in Glen Ellyn and Lombard.
Construction projects are also planned for the rest of the tollway's 294 miles of roads. The projects span the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88), the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), the Tri-State Tollway (I-94/I-294/I-80) and the Illinois Route 390 Tollway.
The Illinois Tollway was created after World War II to help fund the construction of interstate highways around the Chicago area. The tollway's eight-person board is appointed by the governor.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey recently called for the state to eliminate its tolls and replace that funding with another source.
When the toll system was created in the 1950s, tollway officials said the tolls would be phased out in the 1970s after the agency's bonds had been paid off. Instead, the tollway authority made the tolls permanent to cover costs of maintenance and expansion.
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