Toll reforms tardy, but welcome news

Perhaps Gov. Patrick Quinn wasn't kidding when he said earlier this month that "it's important to have a solid tollway system that works for those who use it."

We couldn't agree more with that and with his assessment that his administration would look at the Illinois Toll Highway Authority "from top to bottom."

Two moves last week certainly give the impression that times may be a-changing at the tollway authority, even if we're not sure Quinn was behind them. In any case, it's about time.

Tollway officials announced they were giving a temporary break - until June 30 - on toll fines while they finally clean the violation program up after the Daily Herald months ago detailed problems with the enforcement system.

The problems began when the tollway authority failed to send out violation notices for 13 months, creating a massive backlog that led to motorists unknowingly owing thousands of dollars in fines.

Currently, according to a report by staff writers Marni Pyke and Joseph Ryan, more than 600,000 violation notices are affected by the new rules. There were 270,000 violation notices forwarded to collection agencies. Of those, more than 130,000 license plates and 10,000 driver's licenses are on the verge of suspension.

But all those people would be included under the new reforms. The tollway will eliminate fines tacked onto each violation that have been unpaid for 21 days or more. Violators will only have to pay the initial $20 fine and the owed tolls. They will be able to clear their debt in payments over the next three months.

The problems, said tollway board Chairman John Mitola, are "something that has bothered all of us for I don't know how long."

Well, it took months - and possibly a new governor - to get them to move on reforms pushed by lawmakers last year. And we think tollway officials may be a tad disingenuous when they characterize the reforms as "spring cleaning."

But whatever they are and however they want to describe them, they are welcome news to those faced with violation fines. It was recently disclosed that almost half of the notices caught in the backlog were I-PASS users who assumed their tolls were automatically being paid.

We have said in the past and agree now with acting Executive Director Micheal King when he said authority officials just want tollway users to pay their fair share. But if the system can't figure out what the fair share is, that's when you need to acknowledge the mistakes, take a step back and fix them. We are pleased that's what will happen now.

The slow reaction to the public and legislators in this instance may be what has led to the House moving forward legislation from state Rep. Paul Froehlich, a Schaumburg Democrat, that would force the tollway board to discuss and vote on proposals submitted by petition from at least 1,000 registered voters.

We're not sure yet how it all would work, but it's an intriguing notion that deserves a close look. Anything that makes the tollway board listen and be more responsive is likely a good thing.