POLITICS

Lawmakers should resist the urge to divert tollway dollars

by Charles N. Wheeler III

A recipe for disaster lies in a Cook County judged order forbidding the Toll Highway Authority from spending money after mid-December.

The thought of falling snow might seem refreshing on a steamy summer day. But suppose you're driving in a howling blizzard along an interstate highway that won't be plowed. What was a pleasant daydream is now a frightening nightmare.

And farfetched though it may seem, the image could become real for motorists who use the Chicago area tollway network.

The recipe for disaster lies in a Cook County judge's order that forbids the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority from spending money for almost everything, including plowing its 273 miles of roads, effective December 15. The potential shutdown stems from a lawsuit challenging the agency's power to spend funds without an appropriation by the Illinois General Assembly.

Tollway officials are appealing the order to the Illinois Supreme Court, contending state statutes and previous court rulings make it clear that the agency's expenditures do not need legislative approval. The case seems stronger, though, for the position taken by Circuit Judge Stephen Schiller, who held that the 1970 Constitution requires the toll authority to go through the state budget process just as other state agencies do.

The pertinent constitutional section reads: "The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State." Is the authority an entity of state government, not a local government or a private corporation? Are the tolls it collects public funds, rather than private resources? Then clearly the legislature must approve its spending.

Underlying the constitutional language is the basic premise that government must be accountable to its citizens. One important — though not the only — way to foster such accountability is through the appropriations process, and the toll authority should be included.

Admittedly, there is a certain irony about the agency's budget of $344 million going before the legislature after a 40-year history of fiscal independence. Long a poster child for sloppy management and wasteful spending, the authority has made impressive strides toward fiscal and ethical reform the last few years under board Chairman Julian D'Esposito Jr. and Executive Director Ralph Wehner.

Moreover, whether the legislature would exert meaningful oversight is unclear. After all, most rank-and-file lawmakers had no clue as to details of the state's new $35.6 billion budget they approved in the closing hours of the spring session.

In addition, placing the agency's finances in the hands of the legislature carries certain risks. If agency expenditures are subject to legislative discretion, tollway officials fear bond underwriters and rating agencies will consider tollway debt less credit-worthy. While not affecting the $931 million in bonds the authority has outstanding, a more guarded outlook could increase the costs of future borrowing, they believe.

Presumably, such investors' concerns could be eased by a law providing for the automatic payment of debt service from toll revenues, whether or not money was appropriated for that purpose. In fact, similar provisions are in place for the state's $5.2 billion in outstanding debt.

More worrisome is the possibility that lawmakers might look at the authority as a "cash cow" with windfall revenues that can be tapped for myriad uses. One could argue that the tollways are only part of the state's transportation network, a web with needs more acute in some areas than others. Because the tollways are in much better shape than most state highways, shouldn't a portion of the revenue they generate be used to repair other roads? Or, for that matter, to shore up funding for mass transit, also part of the overall system?

While defensible logically, the urge to use tolls for transit or other purposes should be resisted out of simple fairness. Tollway users already help pay the costs of maintaining state and local roads through gasoline taxes and vehicle fees, none of which go to tollway costs. Those who shop in the six-county

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While downstaters might covet revenues for highways in their areas, some suburban lawmakers would like to eliminate tolls altogether.

area also pay extra sales taxes to help subsidize RTA operations. Tolls are user fees, and as such should be earmarked for tollway upkeep and operations.

Nor is the toll authority awash in money, as some contend (and past abuses seemed to suggest). The $300- plus million "surplus" critics like to cite is money set aside for planned improvements on the existing system, including lane additions, new interchanges, plaza widening, and road and bridge resurfacing. New roads also are on the drawing board, but officials say the authority will have to sell new bonds to pay for their construction.

While down staters might covet tollway revenues for highways in their areas, some suburban lawmakers would like to eliminate tolls altogether. Their reasoning is simple: When the tollway system was created, tolls were to end when the bonds used to finance construction were paid off. The Tri-State, the East-West and the Northwest have been paid for, and so should become freeways.

Despite its appeal, however, such a move also would be a mistake. Repair and maintenance costs continue to increase for the tollways, and tolls must pay the bills. The state hasn't enough money to keep all its roads and bridges in good shape, much less assume financial responsibility for tollways. So tollway users will have to keep plunking coins into the basket, or at least until state gasoline taxes and/or license fees are raised high enough to maintain both the state system and the tollways.

Thus, the responsible path for the legislature during its fall session seems clear: Resist the urge to divert toll revenues to other worthy purposes, approve a budget for the Toll Highway Authority that lets it carry out its duties and get the job done by the December 15 deadline. �

Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

39 / July/August 1997 Illinois Issues