Why the Illinois governor’s race will not change its tolls

On August 19th 2026, the Illinois Tollway board voted 8-0 to raise passenger tolls by an average of about 57% and commercial tolls by 30%, to fund a $26.5 billion capital programme running from 2027 to 2042. It was the agency’s first rate rise in almost 15 years and its largest ever.

At the most common plaza, the passenger rate goes from 75 cents to $1.20, an average rise of about 57% across the network. From 2029, rates will rise automatically with inflation every two years, capped at 8% each time. Two days before the vote, the Republican nominee for governor had published a four-point plan to make the same roads free.

An unusually complete piece of long-range planning

Politics aside, the plan to raise tolls is well put together. The Driving Connections programme (the Tollway’s name for its capital plan) covers 15 years and 5 toll roads, with about $20.6 billion of the $26.5 billion funded from net toll revenue. It also fixes the rate escalations in advance, which takes out the most politically costly moment in a toll operator’s calendar, the discretionary rate rise. Not everyone is happy about that however. The Mid-West Truckers Association called the plan “hastily put together”, and the automatic indexation has drawn even more objections than the 45 cents.

The plan to make the tolls disappear

Darren Bailey, the Republican candidate, will face the incumbent JB Pritzker, on November 3rd. He wants to roll back the increases, replace the Tollway’s leadership, stop new borrowing, pay down the debt and then remove tolls altogether, paid for from a state budget that has grown from $32 billion to $56 billion. Pritzker beat him by 12.5 points in 2022 and prediction markets put a Republican win in the low single digits, so the plan is unlikely to be tested. It is still worth asking what would happen if it were.

Who actually sets the toll

The Illinois Tollway had $7.2 billion of bonds outstanding on January 1st, 2026. They are secured on toll revenue, and the trust indenture, the contract with bondholders, requires the authority to set tolls so that net revenue covers senior debt service at least 1.3 times. Actual cover was 2.4 times in both 2023 and 2024. S&P rates the credit AA-, and says that no other state body has the authority to limit or restrict the rates.

So the governor can’t set the toll, and the legislature can’t do it directly either. The rate is a contractual obligation to bondholders, and the new plan adds to it. A governor elected on abolition could refinance, issue less and wait for a maturity schedule that runs for decades, and little else.

What the plan means for suppliers

For suppliers, the interesting part is the systems spending. Driving Connections (the Tollway’s name for its capital plan) includes upgrades to the back-office systems behind I-PASS and open-road tolling, on a network that handled 1.1 billion transactions and $1.6 billion of toll revenue in 2025. The same budget projects $101 million of net evaded tolls this year, close to 6% of revenue, and a 57% price rise gives more drivers a reason not to pay.

A new administration couldn’t cut the toll, but it could appoint a new board and delay a procurement without breaking any covenant. That is where suppliers are exposed.

Illinois has done what most toll authorities say they want to do: fund a long-term plan, fix the escalator and stop reopening the rate debate every few years. The campaign against it will very probably lose in November, and would have struggled to deliver even if it won.

For those interested in the latest tolling trends, PTOLEMUS has assessed 26 leading tolling solution providers across Europe and North America in the Tolling Solutions Market Study, with market shares, tender scoring, procurement benchmarks from 33 recent RFPs and forecasts to 2035.

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Article written by Alex Tallon, under PTOLEMUS copyright