Eric Odom

Drew Veeneman helped start my day off on an intriguing note with a post over at the Tea Party Blog on the corrupt Illinois Tollway.

When the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) was established in 1941, Austin Wyman (the initial head of the organization) said the tolls would be eliminated by 1984 when outstanding bonds were paid off.

If you’re familiar with Illinois government, you’ll know exactly where this is going.

Instead, the Authority has done just the opposite, maturing into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy without any end in sight. It’s an excellent case study on the instinctive nature of bureaucracy; a testimony of self-preservation, growth, and government waste

A few weeks ago some colleagues and I traveled to Rockford for a day of meetings. Coming from Northern Nevada, I found the Toll Roads to be excessive and couldn’t believe the amount of money that was being gouged out of drivers via the state for the privilage of driving on roads that have already been paid for.

And now I read about the corruption involved in the whole process.

During the 90s, distinguished employees at ISTHA attracted the public’s attention. In 1992, John “Quarters” Boyle was sent to prison for stealing $4 million, mostly in quarters collected from tolls. He only repaid $720 and returned to prison in 2005 for involvement in Chicago’s more recent “Hired Truck” scandal. Later, in 1997, executive director Robert Hickman (coincidentally a talented Illinois campaign fundraiser) was convicted of fraud for $240,000 in a tollway real estate deal.

Good grief. Come on Illinois, we’re much better than this. When will we take a stand against such madness?