McHenry County Blog

The headline in the Chicago Sun-Times about the opening of the extension of the I-355 tollway says,


Not for motorists driving on the rest of the tollway system.

It’s opening and the diversion of tolls from the other highways to pay off its bonds means that tolls will be around, well, forever.

Maybe that’s what inspired House Speaker Mike Madigan to suggest the Crosstown Expressway be a tollway.

It wasn’t always that way.

In 1973 State Rep. Harold Katz had a bill I got in trouble for co-sponsoring. It would have required any new tollway to pay its own way.

Katz had seen how Governor Richard Ogilvie’s East-West Tollway toward the Quad Cities was draining tolls from the other tollways.

That bill was signed into law by Governor Dan Walker and not repealed until DuPage County Republicans decided they wanted I-355.

So, get ready to pay the toll tax for the rest of your lives, toll tax slaves.

But know that you are allowing developers in Will County to breathe a sigh of relief.

And don’t ask for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for you…forever.

Thanks to Governor Rod Blagojevich.

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The Blagojevich sign over a tollway is not over the new one.

Labels: Dan Walker, Harold Katz, I-355, Richard Ogilvie, Rod Blagojevich, Tollway

David Fitzgerald of the Northwest Herald wrote an article Saturday about the first meeting of the task force which will plan the details for the Fox River Toll Bridge between Routes 25 and 31 near Bolz Road south of downtown Algonquin.

No one has commented under the article.

How different from the pattern of reader participation for McHenry County College’s baseball stadium.

Here is a bridge which is going to cost people money every day of their lives and no one seems to care.

Well, there was one soul who lifted his or her voice on the anonymous call-in line of Elgin’s Daily Courier on Friday. Its editor headlined it,

"Perhaps Karen McConaughey should contact officials in Wisconsin as to how they don’t have tolls or toll bridges there.

"Illinois is just getting worse and worse. It is sucking citizens dry.

"How does our state to the north survive with free roads?

"This information should be first on the agenda for the board members and village leaders who might approve a toll bridge across the river between Carpentersville and Algonquin.

"Illinois is ridiculous with its tolls."

Myself, I don’t understand why the leaders involved are not screaming loudly to their legislators as they prepare to finance road building, education and the Chicago Transit Authority with more gambling in Illinois.

We’ll end up second only to Los Vegas in the Chicago area, but our local legislators can’t even pry out this bridge.

And, yes, I know they are working on Western Bypass funding, but that's a deal made when Illinois FIRST was passed under George Ryan.

It looks like we toll taxpayers will have still another place where our money will disappear.

Labels: Algonquin, Carpentersville, Fox River, toll bridge, Tollway

We McHenry County “Subjects” of the Illinois Tollway barons have long been forced to labor in the fields while others got the benefits of our tolls on the long-since paid for Northwest Tollway.

We have one state highway with no access.

That’s Route 23.

We have another—Route 47—with access only from the east. (Yes, I know it is in Kane County, but most traffic originates in McHenry County.)

Want to drive to Rockford on a four-lane highway?

You have to take the back roads to Route 20 in Hampshire.

Tollway officials insist on a complete re-configuration of how Route 47 crosses the Tollway before western entrance and exists are built.

And a good chunk of local money is required.

Northwest Herald reporter David Fitzgerald wrote just this week that the Tollway expects “half of the $65.7 million interchange” to come from local funds.

The point of the story was that Huntley’s $5,000 a month lobbyist, Kim Morreale, had convinced the Tollway to pony up half of the cost.

But look what happened in Winnebago County.

I’ll quote just one sentence from Rockford Register-Star reporter Zack Creglow’s Thursday story:

“The $19.5 million project, paid with federal and state dollars, took about a year to construct.”

Anybody notice a disconnect between what is happening in McHenry County with Route 47 and what’s happening with the Route 173 exchange north of Rockford?

It’s obvious that the animals on the farm in McHenry County still walk on all fours, while those in Winnebago County stand upright.

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The photograph is of the Northwest Tollway looking west from Route 47, where looking is all one can do because of no westbound entrance.

Labels: Illinois Toll Highway Authority, Northwest Tollway, Route 173, Route 47, Tollway

I don’t know why it took so long to figure out that House Speaker Mike Madigan has plans for suburban tollway motorists to finance his version of the Crosstown Expressway.

The scheme struck me Sunday night when I was reading Chicago Tribune transportation reporter John Hilkevitch’s article entitled,

New Crosstown project has key difference—tolls

Back in the 1970’s Glencoe Democratic Party State Representative Harold Katz passed a bill, which I was pleased to support, requiring that any new tollway pay its own way.

This law, of course, was repealed by DuPage County legislators when they wanted to build I-355.

So, toll tax payers on the Tri-State, the Northwest and the East-West Tollway have been forced to subsidize the old 355, as well as its extension into Will County.

Who cares that Northwest Tollway, Tri-State and DuPage portion users of the East-West motorists have paid for their road more than once?

Madigan obviously plans to use this Pate Philip technique to build the Crosstown.

Why not?

It’s free money, isn’t it?

And suburbanites won’t raise a stink.

There too busy earning money to continue paying tolls that should have been abolished decades ago.

Labels: Crosstown, East-West Tollway, Michael Madigan, Northwest Tollway, Pate Philip, Toll Tax Payers, Tollway, Tri-State Tollway

Does this frost anyone’s cookies but mine?

And, with the temperature as low as it is, it takes a lot to frost them.

Our esteemed Governor Rod Blagojevich has proclaimed a new bridge over the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area will be one that

"that does not toll Illinois residents."

The last time I checked the Illinois Department of Transportation drains $88 to $120 million out of the pockets of Chicago area toll road users.

Missouri and Illinois have to come up with $760 million.

If Illinois pays half, that means it will take less than three years of Motor Fuel Taxes paid by Chicagoland tollway motorists to pay for the Illinois share of the new bridge across the Mississippi.

Meanwhile, Kane County is discussing building toll bridges across the Fox River.

Thanks to Respublica for the lead for this story.

Labels: IDOT, Kane County, Mississippi, toll bridge, Tollway

Lots of animals mark their territories.

Dogs pee. Politicians put up signs with their names on them.

During a campaign, yard signs mark current and, sometimes, eventually hoped for territories.

When a new president of the Cook County Board takes office, the signs in the Forest Preserve are changed to reflect that fact.

Back in 1973, the “People’s” Governor, Dan Walker, the man who somehow captivated the media by walking from the bottom of Illinois to the Wisconsin border, decided that he did not need to put his name on the state’s welcoming signs.

When Walker made the announcement, I was in my first year in Springfield, just as was he. I sent him a congratulatory letter and a press release of praise to local papers.

How ironic that it took over 30 years for a subsequent governor--Rod Blagojevich--to decide to undue that good work of his Democratic Party predecessor.

No longer do just the people of Illinois welcome visitors. Not now that Rod is on the sign.

On the way back from the Wisconsin Dells, I saw the "Welcome to Illinois" on Route 47 north of Hebron.

But, that was not enough.

As Jon Hilkevitch writes in his “Getting Around” column in today’s Chicago Tribune, the new

Open Road Tolling – Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor

signs sprouting on all the toll roads cost $15,000 apiece.

“The signs, mounted on steel monotubes above the open-road tolling lanes, require special materials and galvanized brackets that the tollway sign shop cannot install,” the reporter explained.

Tollway spokesman Kathleen Cantillon explained,

"We consider it an important sign."

Right.

Important politically.

At least pee is free. It doesn’t waste our tax money.

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The Chicago Tribune has a poll on its web site on whether the new blue Blagojevich signs are worth $15,000.

At 2:15 Monday afternoon 7.7% (600)were in favor, while 92.7% (7,756) voted, "No."

Labels: Dan Walker, Dog, Political Sign, Rod Blagojevich, Territorial Marking, Tollway

“Do you know that guy Sam Skinner?”

That’s what the Democrat across the aisle asked me one day shortly after our 1973 swearing in.

“No, never met him,” was my answer.

“That’s good, because he’s getting close to some of my friends,” was the reply, as he poked his finger repeatedly into my chest

We ended up getting along well enough, but that exchange made me think it was time to meet Sam Skinner.

So, the next time I was in Chicago, I went into the U.S. Attorney’s Office and asked to see him.

I was ushered in and Sam started to ask me questions about State Rep. Pete Pappas, a Republican from the Quad Cities. He knew I was on the Motor Vehicles Laws Committee and asked about the cement truck bill that had been approved the year before. This is the one that raised the weight limits to 80,000 pounds, a highway busting level.

I told him that I was sworn in until 1973, so knew nothing about it.

Later, U.S. Attorney Jim Thompson indicted Pappas for having accepted bribes. Also indicted were all the members of the Motor Vehicle Laws Commission, except Republican Clarence Neff of Stronghurst, if memory serves me correctly.

And we learned that Pappas was wearing a wire during 1973...presumably while chairing the House Motor Vehicle Laws Committee, on which I served.

Once he was indicted, that light bulb that you used to see in balloons above cartoon characters’ heads blinked brightly.

After our first Motor Vehicle Laws Committee meeting, lobbyists working the committee financed a dinner in the lower level of the Mansion View Inn. (The Mansion View was owned by Paul Powell earlier. What do you want to bet that Secretary of State’s employees were strongly encouraged to stay there while visiting Springfield?)

Rep. Pappas stood up after dinner and explained that the Motor Vehicle Laws Commission, which consisted of five House and five Senate members, “pre-screened” the bills.

“I don’t want to tell you how to vote, but if they are sponsored by the members of the Motor Vehicle Laws Commission, they’re OK to vote for,” Pappas continued.

I raised my hand.

“I’m co-sponsoring a bill with Harold Katz to eliminate the requirement to have a drivers license application notarized,” I said.

His reply was exactly what he had said just before: “I don’t want to tell you how to vote, but if they are sponsored by the members of the Motor Vehicle Laws Commission, they’re OK to vote for.”

In 1973, I sponsored a lot of bills (passing more than any other freshman) and the Motor Vehicle Laws Committee met while I had to present bills to other committees.

One day, I walked into the committee room during a roll call. I asked my 33rd District Democratic colleague Tom Hanahan what was being voted upon and he told me it was Katz’ notarization bill.

I voted in favor.

The bill passed by one vote.

If looks could kill, I would be dead from the stare I got from Chairman Pappas.

My guess is that he was not yet wired at the time the vote was taken.

Labels: Harold Katz, House Motor Vehicle Laws Committee, Illinoiis Secretarty of State, Jim Thompson, Mansion View Inn, Pete Pappas, Sam Skinner, Tollway, Tom Hanahan