Tollway system feeds its perpetuity

I would like to add a few comments to a recent letter from Mr. James Schaefer regarding the tollway.

It is true the system as originally set up was to become free after a number of years, but our politicos then passed legislation that allowed the system to retain its toll status as long as it remained in debt.

Of course, "planned" expansions have ensured that the system will always stay in debt. How many politicos or family members hold these lucrative tollway bonds?

Some of these plans worry me. The extension of Route 53 into Lake County is one. If/when this is done, I'll bet the farm that the 53 freeway through the Northwest suburbs will become a tollway.

After all, doesn't it seem ludicrous to have a stretch of freeway between the 355 (toll) and the 53 (toll) extension?

The other day, I read that the tollway politicos are considering making the Eisenhower freeway a tollway. Preposterous. The Ike Pike was built with mostly (90 percent, I believe) taxpayers' dollars.

Now they have the gall to propose charging us to drive on a highway we paid for. What's next, the Kennedy, I-55, I-57, Edens or the Dan Ryan?

Ken Kitzing

Mount Prospect