Dawolfman75, Illinois has had 4 Governors convicted of crimes since 1973, a conviction rate of 50% of their last 8 Governors-not counting the current one (I imagine more than a few FIBs giggle when they hear Cheeseheads rage about Governor Walker's "outrageous" actions).

I wouldn't exactly count on 100% accuracy from Illinois politicians about where the toll money goes.

i wouldn't be opposed to the state looking into how the i pass works. after all, if illinois uses it, they should be able to ask them how its set up. we would then know how much actually would go towards or roads. thats IF we weren;t lied to about this as well.

Another tacked on fee is just what we need about now, how about toll breathing as a revenue enhancing tool as well. The roads will get worse, the pockets of the "management company" collecting the tolls will swell and what will there be to show for it (other than some wealthy folks collecting millions a buck at a time).

the current one not idiot dad.

Dawolfman75, that's the first time I've read Diamond Jim Doyle, the politician who raided the state transportation fund, misappropriating $1,300,000,000.00 during his "reign", being called Idiot boy.

I would be in favor of tollways actually. i Pass is used in Illinois and indiana and i believe a couple other states. its rather handy when i come back home from work every 2nd or 3rd weekend to see my family because Idiot boy can't fullfill his promise of the jobs he said he would create. i pay a lump sum for tolling and when it starts to run out i get an e mail remindning me. IF Idiot Boy left the money go where its supposed to, would help as far as road maintanance.

lol I saw that in San Diego. They have change thingies on doors of bathroom. You have to pay to use restrooms near pacific beach.

Mouse, another great idea. Set up beer concessions in the Capitol and convert all the urinals and toilets to pay facilities. Then as Wisconsin needs more revenue, Walker can announce another reform and the protesters will flock to the Capitol and demonstrate the state into a balanced budget.

We might need more police there to guard the employees removing the coins from the bathroom, unless we went high-tech and installed open-restroom tolling technology. It would work just like the Illinois tolling system, but instead of calling it "i-Pass", we'd call it...

Walker will have us pay to pee next.

That is a difficult question as to if Wisconsin should have tollways.

I enjoy driving on I-90 more than I do in Illinois because of it. I do not believe it should be anywhere near any of the Janesville exit/entrance ramps, but that is my opinion.

Regardless of what happens, if Wisconsin does choose the tollway system, I believe they should institute the open-road toll concept AND the equivalent to the I-PASS. Actually, to complete it so that we can use our I-PASS would be great. It is awesome that my I-PASS works on I-90 all the way to the East Coast (or at least most of it, if not all of it).

Just my 2 cents.

egghead, Yup, I really love it! Feels just like a Kentucky/Tenn. winter. :)

No tolls. If we need more revenue (debatable) to maintain our roads, I would much rather have that revenue all on one "bill" - my state income tax. I feel the same way about garbage pick-up and street maintenance in Janesville - if we need more revenue, put it on my property tax. I choose northward travel for recreation (hiking, camping, skiing, etc.) rather than southward due in large part to the tolls. We want to increase recreation and business travel to our "out of the way" state. How will fees on our roads help meet that goal?

TRAINS....... RECALL WALKER.... BOYCOTT KOCH PRODUCTS.
WISCONSIN IS SO FAR BEHIND THE TIMES....
forgot, we only want Walkers buddies trains to be paid for by the taxpayers.

Tollroads are a great idea. The extra money could help maintain our roadways. The Wisconsin taxpayers should be exempt from reimbursing state democrats that pay tolls when fleeing to other states.

Hey winterstinks i'll bet your really liking this one. Heck its feeling like TN winter this year. I can't remember one this mild. lol

Isn't that always how it goes...any temporary tax will be a permanent one! Sadly, the state is looking for money in any way they can get it. Instead of re-thinking how money is spent, we'll just get more money! Was't there talk of a tax on soda pop...and/or sugar? Nothing but a bunch of theives, except they steal from the poor to give to the rich. Kind of bass ackwards don't you think? Is it time for another revolution? And no, I don't consider Scott Walker a revolutionary. He's seems to be more of a crook, back stabber, and puppet for the rich looking to get richer.

Wisconsin should be ashamed to even think of tollways. Wisconsin is so much better than that. Whenever I come up to Wisconsin on a trip I get off of the tollway and my first thought is I am free at last. It is not the money that bothers me, it is knowing that I am out of Illinois, the only state on my entire trip with a tollway. I always feel like washing my hands after a trip through Illinois and I used to live there. Wisconsin should never turn itself into what Illinois is.

Greg, that would be the dumbest thing the state ever did. As a traveler on tollways from PA, NJ, OH, IN, and most recently IL, none of these roads were maintained as well as the interstates in WI. Even the main highways that are not interstates, such as Route 12 from the IL boarder to Elkhorn, have always been kept in better shape. Lets keep the money flowing from existing sources to fund our highways and forget about a whole new system of tolls.

In CO, they put in a new tollway from Denver to Boulder. Everyone drives other routes to avoid the tolls. While the new auto-payment methods are great and do clear up traffic, it is an extremely expensive thing to start. Lets use our taxes wisely and for the benefit of everyone and not force people who have to drive these routes to pay for the whole road themselves.

This is such an expensive state already all the way around.

Please guy, we don't need to give this state MORE MONEY!

I was born in Illinois. Just ask anyone from Illinois if the toll was a good idea. I bet 99% of the people from Illinois will tell you it was the worst move they made. The toll road in Illinois has gotten so out of hand, it's ridiculous. It is privately owned now and they keep raising the price of tolls..The highways are never done and where does all that money go to??? The toll road in Illinois was supposed to be temporary. How many years has it been now?

Yes to tollroads

No.

We cant manage the money we currently have.... why would any more money do any more good? We need management... not more money.

I wonder how much additional traffic Highway 14 between Janesville and Madison would have if I-90 were to become a toll road? It's about the same amount of time to drive to the Park Street exit off the Highways 12/18 Beltline via Highway 14 as it is via the Interstate. How long before there was political pressure to make more of that 4-lane, divided highway, like it is near madison? How soon before people started calling for a Highway 14 bypass at Evansville?

Wisconsin residents might wind up with chronic higher traffic problems on a number of state or local roads, or pay a lot of money (via increased state taxes) and endure the state's confiscation of private property via eminent domain (much like the Highway 11 bypass around Janesville) to alleviate local "trouble spots" created by traffic avoiding tolls.

I posted this on the previous story and I'll post it here as well....

http://www.revenue.wi.gov/ise/mvfcons.pd...

Just look at what the state is already collecting on gasoline taxes and tell me that isn't enough to maintain the roads. I refuse to believe they cannot do it on $1 billion a year. Building the toll roads isn't going to be free, and I'm sure it will be expensive. Then it'll be one more thing the state will have to operate, or pay someone to operate, every year. It's just one more thing they're going to use to increase our taxes. Every year we're going to year about how much operating expenses have increased, and how much more it costs to operate than what they budgeted. Every year they're going to be telling us they are not collecting enough. Once they figure out another way to get money out of our pockets they'll be raising the toll rates at every opportunity. It's going to end up costing us more in the long run.
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I keep reading comments and apparently a good number of people seem to think that only people from Illinois use our interstate system. Apparently those people don't leave their homes (or maybe they just don't leave the Janesville city limits), and have never been to Milwaukee. My husband commutes to work in Madison every day. Many of our friends commute to work someplace other than Janesville via the interstate also. Toll roads are going to be one more expense out of our pocket every day. It's just going to be one more thing chipping away at the middle class. I travel all over the state for my job and I'm smart enough to figure out that this is going to cost A LOT of WISCONSIN businesses a hell of a lot of money. Anybody who believes this expense will be carried on the backs of out of staters is kidding themselves. Whether you use the interstate or not, the costs of those tolls is going to be rolled into the cost of everything you purchase because at the end of the day it is just another operating expense that companies cannot afford to cover and have no choice but to pass along to the final price of goods. If the state can't maintain the roads on $1 billion a year it isn't because they don't have enough money, it's because they're wasting and mismanaging the funds they're collecting. Toll roads won't make that any different.

Yes to toll roads

No! We pay gas tax, but the fact is that gas tax is not high enough; gas tax is more fair tax anyway because those who use more gas (i.e. Semis, trucks and SUVs) are the ones who do more damage to the roads. Our legislature stopped the gas tax from automatically increasing to keep up with increasing maintenance costs and then they all turned around and signed a tax pledge to not raise taxes. A toll-way is simply another tax and creates more wear and tear on our side streets which in turn increases costs to local government which in turn has to increase taxes. And the most pathetic excuse is well Illinois does it, just because another state has increased fees for using its interstate system does not mean that it is something we should do or that it is right. And how exactly will this help us be open for business?