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Tollway stories

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Three tollway stories today. First, Speaker Madigan has some questions.

Breaking months of silence on the landmark issue, House Speaker Michael Madigan has raised more than a dozen questions about a potential tollway lease deal in a letter to lawmakers overseeing hearings on the matter.

Madigan says the questions, which range from how tolls would increase to what would happen to the oases, need to be answered before the plan is given serious thought.

The letter resembled one he sent earlier this month to state House members regarding another lease plan â€” Gov. Rod Blagojevichâ€™s proposal to lease the state lottery for $10 billion to fund education initiatives.

Then there’s this story in the Southtown about a tollway sale/lease hearing earlier this week.

If a system of toll roads built on the backs of suburban commuters is sold or leased, the windfall better wind up in the suburbs.

That was the message given Tuesday to an Illinois Senate committee that’s looking into privatizing the state’s tollway system.

“This is where the needs are,” Will County Executive Larry Walsh told the committee at a hearing in Joliet. […]

State Sen. Christine Radogno (R-LaGrange) noted more than 70 percent of traffic on the tollways is generated by commuters, and most of those vehicles are moving from suburb to suburb to get to work.

“We’ve paid into the system over the last 40 years. Our paying into it gives the system value for someone to come in and buy it,” Radogno said. “Does the money stay in these communities? I think that is a legitimate question.”

And the I-Team follows up on an earlier story.

Was an Illinois Tollway worker fired for refusing to pay off a politically-connected contractor? Two powerful Illinois state senators are formally requesting that the attorney general look into new allegations of corruption at tollway headquarters.

On Monday, the ABC7 I-Team first reported that a tollway worker claimed he was terminated after refusing the give a $100,000 gift to a state contractor. Now, there is new information about which politician allegedly wanted the contractor paid off.
As a middle manager at the Illinois Tollway, Jim Fragackis did not expect to get a call with instructions from a state senator.

The matter has been referred to the attorney general.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 5:05 am

Comments

What’s wrong with taxing oil addicted commuters more, since they waste gas driving between work and their manicured lawn in a gated community?

If they don’t like the trivial extra tax, maybe they’ll change jobs, homes, or telecommute instead.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 6:31 am
6:31 - You just did a lousy job (Blah-Blahish, in fact) trashing people in the suburbs but you did not justify any of those shenanigans. Why not?

November 7.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 6:53 am
…The matter has been referred to the Attorney General..

Which one?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 7:32 am
Interesting that the supposed crooked politician died in 2004.

We know Mr. Fragackis is unhappy about losing his middle manager state job, but the story tells us nothing about the specifics of his position. Was he a civil service employee, a four year termer, or at will. Was his position Rutan-protected or Rutan-exempt. If he was laid off, were the layoff provisions of the state’s personnel regulations followed. Were layoff recall provisions followed in filling subsequent positions.

State government employment is not an entitlement. And while politicians should probably not be calling mid and low level state employees directly (there are agency legislative liaisons to handle legislator concerns) the mere facts of the call and the job loss don’t prove anything.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 8:17 am
I see, 6:31, people buy a house in an area with a good school system, have no public transportation options and therefore should give up their job or sell their home all because someone else thinks that they should not be able to make their own decisions in their life, and if you do , well pay more taxes for it.

Not all of us choose to live in the sewer of Chicago. Some of us actually prefer being able to sit on our front porch and talk with neighbors, leave doors unlocked, and have schools where the biggest concern is the type of playground equipment they will get.

If you wnt to live in a commune, go for it. You want to deal with the L fine. But so long as we payinto a system, and now Governor goodies for all, wants to raid that system for his personal gain, I think we have something to say about that. If you don’t pay tolls, then you should have no say over our roads.

try that.

D

Comment by Dozer Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 8:17 am
Don’t expect me to justify the shenanigans, I was only supporting the appropriateness of taxing wasteful behavior.

If you choose to live in a nice place far from work that won’t let you telecommute, don’t whine when your addiction to foreign oil gets taxed.

If you’ve studied economics, you’d know it’s far better to tax the bad (foreign oil and pollution) than the good, such as property or income.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 8:46 am
I still don’t see what the problem is.

Give the suburbs 100% of the proceeds from the tollway sale, and then cut general fund expenditures on those communities by the same amount.

Just like how the lottery proceeds solved our education funding problems.

Comment by Leroy Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 9:00 am
Anon, what an idiotic comment! Not everyone can live in the city! According to what you are saying everyone should live next to their employment………good luck with that!

Comment by Lori Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 10:09 am
I said people should be taxed for wasteful behavior and choices that drain our economy by increasing our massive trade deficit, while leaving our national security at risk because of our addiction to foreign oil.

You can still choose to be wasteful…if you’re willing to pay an appropriate price.

Obviously, I can’t blame anyone for wanting a free lunch, but the reality is we can’t afford to be wasting money on foreign oil.

Tax the bad, not the good.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 11:53 am
The Illinois Attorney General cannot investigate some former employee complaints and not others. The IAG cannot ignore former employee complaints filed with her and then provide a defense for the state; conflict of interest.

So what is it going to be? Will the Executive Inspector Generals whose task it is to investigate allegations like these be the investigators or will the Illinois Attorney General do the investigation?

Answer: The Illinois Attorney General cannot investigate an employee’s or former state employees complaints: THE JOB BELONGS TO THE EXECUTIVE INSPECTOR GENERALS.

In addition, pursuant to the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, 5 ILCS 430, if an EIG investigate a complaint and determines merit and decides to file a complaint with the Executive Ethics Commission, the EIG is represented before the Commission by whom? No other than the Illinois Attorney General. Read the Act-

Order in the court! and order is needed in the State of Illinois with investigation after investigation being investigated by anybody and everybody.

No laws are followed or enforced! The Governor’s Office could care less about the IAG (but Mike Madigan does which is why he’s speaking out for his daughter since she’s politically silenced), the IAG is not addressing any of the corruption that plagues the media everyday.

Do they think this will all blow over one day?

Comment by One Man Can Make A Difference Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 3:17 pm
Cassandra, girl friend, once again you show that you do not pay attention, nor arm yourself with facts. Jim Fragakis was a Building Maintenance Manager and if you listened to Chuck Goudie he worked for the Tollway for 25 years. He was not laid off, none of them were laid off, he was terminated-his job eliminated. We do not have civil service employees at the Authority and yes he was a Rutan employee. His previous position was vacant at the time they could’ve demoted him back to that job or even into one of the many vacancies in maintenance were he started.

Just add the Tollway to the list of agencies being investigated when is it going to come to a head?

Comment by angry and outraged Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 5:39 pm
Good for Larry Walsh. Let him tell his erstwhile colleague, Sen. Schoenberg, that the ‘burbs shouldn’t be milked to subsidize the rest of the state even more than they already are.

Comment by disgusted Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 7:37 pm
Okay, the AG is investigating, but will anything come of it or will it ‘disappear’?

Comment by state worker #1 Thursday, Jun 15, 06 @ 9:11 pm