Illinois Tollway Tolls are expensive and totally out of control! Chicago Illinois

I am writing to ask you to help with the tremendous burden the Illinois Tollway is playing in the lives of working families.  As a resident of Illinois, I feel as though I pay my fair share between the state, county and city taxes that continue to increase year after year even though our family’s income has been cut in half over the past 5 years due to my job at IBM being outsourced to India.

After being out of work for over 6 months I was offered a job 30+ miles away from my home.  Any income is better than nothing.  However, now I am faced with a lower wage on top of the tolls I have to pay every day to get back and forth to work.  I am currently paying $6.60 a day in tolls on 355.  This might not seem like much to some but to my family it is the difference of eating or going hungry for a couple of days prior to pay day. Please keep in mind $6.60 a day is $33.00 a week and sadly comes to over $1,700 a year. For those that do not have I-Pass accounts that number would triple. The I-Pass account I have auto replenishes my funds which is great for the Tollway.  Although, for a family that lives check to check it causes our account to be overdrawn and additional fees of $35 for each overdraft.  The tollways were supposed to be a temporary fix, but unfortunately they only continue to increase the cost.

What is the money being used for?  Doesn’t the State get enough from the citizens through the taxes we continue to pay to live here? 

I think that this is an important issue that should be looked at for those of us that pay our fair share, try to make an honest living and just need to be given some help every once in a while.  I’m not asking for Unemployment, Food Stamps, Free Cell Phones or Free Health Care.  Respectfully, I am only asking for those of us that are considered “Middle Class” to be taken care of now and then.

Stop the madness and quit sucking the citizens of Illinois dry.