Taxpayers Try To Stop Lisa Madigan's "Highway Robbery"

By on February 9, 2012   /   IL Toll Tax, Latest, Lawsuits, News Releases  

CHICAGO–Plaintiffs against the Ill. State Toll Highway Authority filed an amended complaint today in Cook County Circuit Court. Plaintiffs consist of James L. Tobin, Christina Marie Tobin, Kenneth Malo, John Guild, Rae Ann McNeilly, Paul Cassidy, Glenn Westphal and Carol Westphal.
Plaintiffs are seeking a Declaratory Judgment, injunctive relief, and redress for the violation of their civil rights by the defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983, et seq. The Authority raised cash tolls by approximately 90% as of January 1.
Representing the Authority is the office of Ill. Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (D), daughter of Chicago machine boss and Ill. House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D).
“What Lisa Madigan is getting away with is nothing less than highway robbery,” said plaintiff James Tobin.
The amended complaint included the following points:

  • The Commission was created by an act of the Illinois General Assembly as an instrumentality and administrative agency of the State of Illinois in 1953. On October 25, 1955, the Tollway Commission adopted a resolution authorizing a single series of bonds aggregating $415,000,000 to finance the construction of what it described as “The Northern Illinois Toll Highway,” which was to consist of three separate routes.
  • In its first full year of operation the annual toll revenues collected amounted to $14,536,000. Since 2000, the Tollway has collected nearly $9 Billion ($8,621,360,000) in toll revenues from the users of its toll highways. The majority of that amount was collected from the three routes where the revenue bonds were already paid.
  • The Tollway has indicated it now has some 13 series of outstanding bonds, with an aggregate total of over $4 Billion ($4,066,675,000) and with at least one series of those bonds not maturing until January 1, 2034.  It continues to issue bonds without giving due consideration to the intent of the legislature that the Tollway should dissolve when the original bonds were repaid.

“Rather than paying off the tollway bonds and disbanding, the overpaid administrators keep issuing new bonds, so that the bonds of the authority never get paid off as the Ill. Legislature intended,” said Tobin. “This way the bureaucrats, tollway employees and politically-connected contractors rake in the dough year after year.”
Click here to view the 1st amended complaint
View as a  PDF

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TUA vs. Illinois Tollway Authority & AG Madigan: The Sequel – February 7th!

By on February 6, 2012   /   IL Toll Tax, Latest, Lawsuits, News Advisory, Press Calls  

February 7, 2012: Judge Rita Novak, of the Cook County Circuit Court, will hear arguments to roll back the 90 percent January 1st toll tax increase, and end the tollway system in Illinois.
In its amended complaint, Taxpayers United of America, (“TUA”), claims the Tollway Authority violated several statuatory requirements.  If the court agrees, it could order the Tollway Authority to abandon its fifteen-year, $12 billion capital plan.
The February 7th hearing challenges the doubling of tolls for cash users, and seeks  permission to proceed as a class action on behalf of all tollway users.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office is representing the Tollway. She has asked the court to throw out Tobin’s case in its entirety.
The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2402 of the Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602.

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Spit on the Law

By on December 21, 2011   /   IL Toll Tax, Latest, News Releases  

Click here to view as a PDF                         Click here to view $100,000-plus salaries each year from tolls
CHICAGO–Taxpayers United of America (TUA) President Jim Tobin called Tuesday’s hearing of his lawsuit against the Illinois Tollway Authority a “spectacle,” and labeled Judge Rita Novak’s decision yesterday rejecting an attempt to block the 90% percent tollway tax hike scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1 a “callous, politically-driven decision.”
“Novak essentially gave tollway customers, as well as the law, no consideration,” said Tobin.
Novak dismissed a lawsuit challenging the tollway’s authority to raise tolls.
“The hearing was a spectacle,” said Tobin. “Tollway users were represented by noted attorney Andrew Spiegel, and State Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) must have been worried, because she had six — that’s right — six of her taxpayer paid staff there to represent the Tollway Authority.”
Attorney General Lisa Madigan is the daughter of powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-22, Chicago). (Read more…) →

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