Schoenberg Sticker Shock

Once again, Democrat State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg is looking to stick it to his constituents. Along with Democrat Rep. Julie Hamos, Schoenberg engineered the punitive high-density housing law targeting this area to force local communities to subsidize development. Now Schoenberg is sticking us with higher taxes and more congestion in his tollway plan, to bail out his buddy, Democrat Governor Bankrupt Blagojevich.

Sun Times, (buried in Metro Briefs today):

Chicago area drivers could see large toll increases if state officials approve handing over the state's toll highway system for a big bundle of cash, according to a state-authorized financial analysis. The 134-page report comes as lawmakers consider whether the state should sell or lease the tollway to a private company and reap billions of dollars for other state needs. A panel of lawmakers is to discuss the analysis from financial adviser Credit Suisse during a meeting today at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. The report includes a variety of scenarios for rate increases. In one, I-Pass users would see tolls rise from 40 cents to 64 cents on average in four years and cash payers' tolls would go from 80 cents to $1.27 during that time.

And there's more, in this Daily Herald story from yesterday:

And while suburban officials might like the money to stay in the region, the political reality is that a significant chunk won’t. Even the lawmaker pushing the tollway plan said as much as 60 percent of the state’s potential take would likely go outside the suburban region.

Senator Stick-it-to-Us says immediate toll increases might not be necessary and we might get some of it back, but as he well knows, and the analysis shows, the biggest bang for the buck for the state would be to frontload fee increases.

And there's still more:

If lawmakers were to consider leasing only part of the system, the I-294 Tri-State Tollway would be the most profitable to lease, the report shows. The 82 miles stretching from Indiana to Wisconsin generate $228 million a year in tolls, about half of all tollway revenue. Under the highest toll-increase scenario presented in the report, the Tri-State could fetch between $8.2 billion and $11.5 billion.

Imagine what will happen to the Edens "express"way. Our senator must think we're a bunch of cows, that he can get away with this---cash cows. And he probably can, because he has before. Meanwhile Cook County continues to be corrupt, drawing the attention of Shakman, and Democrats continue to brazenly knock Republicans off the ballot.

Add toll-hikes to our prohibitively high local, Cook County and state gas taxes, and you have major sticker-shock for suburban Cook County and our collar county friends.

And with a bankrupt state pension fund and a bankrupt state, Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, Democrat, Evanston, has ganged up with his Chicago friends and Governor Bankrupt Blagojevich to stick it to us suburbanites for years to come.

UPDATE: There is one thing you can do---VOTE TONY PERAICA for Cook County Board President!!! Throw these corrupt politicos out! Related editorial in Tribune here.