Letters: Tolls bankrupting families
April 26, 2012 10:34PM
Updated: May 28, 2012 8:26AM
After my husband came home from work one night, and told me that our $40 I-Pass charge hit the checking account again for the second time this month, I decided I would write this much-thought-about letter.
We pay $80 a month in tolls for my husband to travel for his job. He is in sales and does a lot of driving. He drives a 10-year-old truck that he spends about $150 a week on gas. We are not in a position to buy a “fuel efficient” car.
I am a stay-at-home mom of three young children, and I have to drive a minivan which is another $80 a week in gas. The cost of gas and tolls is killing families, and I do not feel that our politicians are in touch with our reality.
I know there are many in our same position.
It makes me sick every time I add up the cost of travel. It is around $1,000 a month. That is almost as much as our mortgage.
This has got to stop. With the economy the way it is, they should have never doubled our tolls. Improvements, expansion? Great, wait until things are getting better for the people of Illinois before you go spending our hard earned money. I will remember this at election time, and I hope you will, too.
Melissa Lee
Plainfield
‘Chicago Machine’ politics
invade Will County
The Chicago Machine has a unique way of doing things. Foremost in its repertoire of tricks is having the boss pick the candidate, bypassing the primary where the voters pick their candidate.
Almost half of all the current Democrat state senators used the Chicago Machine way of having the boss, not the voters, pick the candidate.
Unfortunately, the Democrat boss of Will County is following suit and picking his candidates just like the Chicago Machine, bypassing the voters. Larry Walsh did that when he appointed himself to a state senate seat in 1997. A.J. Wilhelmi was appointed likewise by the boss to his state senate seat in 2005. Last February, the day after the ballots were printed, A.J. Wilhelmi quit his senate seat to be a lobbyist which will allow the Will County Democrat boss to pick his successor. Recently, state representative Jack McGuire quit his seat, allowing the Democrat boss to pick his successor.
The reason for using the Chicago Machine way of picking candidates is to ensure the election of Democrats to office who will toe the party line, sending our tax money to bail out failed programs in Cook County. The Chicago Machine way of doing things has resulted in the State of Illinois having the worst credit rating in the nation and the northern district of Illinois leading the nation for the most corruption convictions.
On Election Day, Nov. 6, it is time for Will County to reject the Chicago Machine way of doing things, and time to elect office holders who will be responsible to the people, not to the Chicago Machine.
Edward Ronkowski
Mokena
