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Tollway 'website of shame' targeting scofflaws gets boost

SPRINGFIELD — Drivers who owe more than $1,000 in tollway fines could have their names posted to a “website of shame” to try to embarrass them into paying up under a plan that has reached Gov. Pat Quinn's desk.

Quinn hasn't said whether he'll sign it into law, spokesman David Blanchette said. The Illinois Tollway hasn't taken a side, either.

Tollway officials would have to try to contact a driver nine different times to try to collect the fines before posting his or her name on the site.

The Illinois House approved the plan by a 62-55 vote Friday, lawmakers' last regularly scheduled meeting day of the year.

Earlier, the plan had failed by just one vote. But state Rep. Kathleen Willis, an Addison Democrat, stood after that vote to announce she had meant to vote “yes,” not “no.”

Willis voted for it Friday.

“This is just an additional tool to embarrass people,” state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, said at the time of the initial vote.

In opposing it, state Rep. Ron Sandack, a Downers Grove Republican, has called it a “website of shame.”

Some lawmakers pushed back because people could get named on the site while they were trying to pay off their fines or if someone else was running up fines with their car.

The tollway website idea joins other high-profile traffic decisions Quinn has to make this summer. Lawmakers have also sent him legislation trying to raise the speed limit on tollways and interstates to 70 mph and banning the use of handheld cellphones while driving.

Should tollway have “website of shame” for scofflaws?

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