Darren Bailey pledges free Illinois tollways
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A truck heads towards the Illinois Tollway. Photo: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey wants to make the state’s toll roads free, reviving a decades-old promise that’s much easier said than financed.
Why it matters: Eliminating tolls would upend a transportation funding system lawmakers just expanded.
- Last year's sweeping transit package called for higher tolls to help finance a new multibillion-dollar Tollway construction program, while shifting other state transportation revenues toward mass transit.
The big picture: Bailey isn't just proposing to eliminate a user fee. The downstate Republican is proposing to unwind a key funding source for a newly enacted, long-term infrastructure plan.
Zoom in: Bailey put forth a four-point plan that would roll back Pritzker-era toll hikes, replace Illinois Tollway leadership, stop new borrowing and pay down more than $7 billion in existing debt.
What they're saying: "The money the state is spending on Mass Transit in Chicagoland could be used to maintain existing toll roads," A Bailey campaign spokesperson tells Axios.
- "We can afford to do the right thing for Illinois motorists. We just need the political will to get it done."
Driving the news: Bailey's campaign promise comes less than a year after lawmakers approved a sweeping transportation package that called for raising passenger tolls by 45 cents and commercial tolls by 30% beginning in 2027.
- The toll increases would be the biggest in Illinois history.
Zoom out: Illinois is one of 34 states with toll roads, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Some states have eliminated tolls after paying off the debt used to build their highways.
Reality check: The Illinois Tollway is currently designed to pay for itself. Eliminating tolls would therefore shift the cost of the multibillion-dollar transportation system from tollway users to taxpayers or another revenue source.
By the numbers: The Illinois Tollway operates 294 miles of roads as a user-fee system and says it receives no state dollars for maintenance and operations.
- Its 2026 budget projects more than $1.73 billion in revenue.
- $467.7 million is budgeted for maintenance and operations, $581.9 million for debt service and $735.9 million for capital investments.
Flashback: Bailey does have history on his side. When Illinois created the State Toll Highway Commission in 1953, the basic financing concept was to borrow money through revenue bonds to build the system and use tolls to pay it back. Once the bonds were paid off, the roads were supposed to become free — hence the slogan “Free by ’73.”
- Lawmakers reorganized the commission into the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority in 1968 and abandoned the expectation that the roads would eventually become free. Today, toll revenue supports ongoing operations.
Friction point: While Bailey's plan will appeal to conservative voters who want fewer fees and less borrowing, he'd have to work with the General Assembly to make some of these changes, which currently has Democratic supermajorities in both chambers.
The bottom line: Bailey says Illinois can afford free toll roads by spending less on Chicago-area mass transit. Whether that math adds up is another question.