Indiana-Illinois tollway pay disparity unfair

April 26, 2007

EDITORIAL, Daily Southtown

The issue: When electronic tolling goes into effect on the Indiana Toll Road, Hoosiers will get a discount on the Illinois system, but Illinois motorists will have to pay full tolls in Indiana under an existing agreement.

We say: Indiana officials need to renegotiate their contract with the system’s new private management company so Illinois drivers can get the discount. If they won’t, or can’t, the Illinois tollway should cancel the discount for Hoosiers.

Those summertime roadtrips from the Chicago area through northwest Indiana can be a royal pain because of seemingly endless road construction projects. By the end of this summer, they may cost more, too.

Beginning June 1, electronic tolling will be in place on the Indiana Toll Road. Once the entire length of the tollway is equipped for electronic tolling about the end of summer, the private company that now manages the Indiana system will raise tolls. At the same time, Hoosiers who buy I-Zoom transponders — the Indiana equivalent of I-PASS — will get a 40 percent discount on tolls.

But not us Illinois drivers.

In order to make tollway traveling quick and convenient, states from the Midwest to the East Coast have been creating reciprocity agreements. Theoretically, motorists will be able to drive from Chicago to Boston using the same transponder to pay tolls electronically.

In that spirit of cooperation, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has agreed to give Indiana I-Zoom users the same discount Illinois I-PASS users get — 50 percent.

But it turns out that Indiana isn’t reciprocating. If you use your I-PASS in Indiana, you’ll be charged for the full toll, rather than getting the 40 percent discounts Indiana residents will get once the toll increase goes into effect. And Indiana officials are saying there may not be anything they can do about it. That’s because the no-discount policy is dictated by the lease contract between Indiana and the private company that will run the system for the next 75 years. The company’s bid was based on the assumption that out-of-state drivers will pay full tolls. So granting the discount to Illinois motorists now would violate the terms of the contract.

Perhaps it will be impossible for Indiana to work out this glitch with the private management firm. But if it is impossible, Indiana officials ought to give the company grief at every opportunity over the next 75 years. We can’t imagine how both state officials and executives at the private management company could have totally overlooked the fact that people from out of state would be driving on their roads.

More to the point, Illinois tollway officials ought to put an immediate end to any kind of discount for Indiana drivers who use the Illinois system. There’s no reason for Illinois to treat the Hoosiers like they’re part of our family if they’re not interested in returning the favor.

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