Responsible government should never use fines as receivables to borrow against, so much as the tolls collected for use of the roads. Fines can be negotiated in order to collect the tolls and/or levied by judges in lesser amounts to prevent the company from going out of business. Never should government overlook these responsibilities while realizing they can destroy the very jobs they want to protect.
In defense of tolls, they are needed to fund necessary infrastructure, however they should never be leveraged to provide income in favor of going easy on other aspects of the economy. Good infrastructure makes for businesses using a transportation infrastructure as it will provide for less repair bills and tire wear for companies, so it does make a difference. But, tolls should reflect a realistic infrastructure that won't over leverage maintenance of the roads and bridges. Tolls can provide more monies than the maintenance budget, but, it should never be draconian. The balance between necessary, a support to the city, state or region and draconian has to be met.
By Jon Hilkevitch and Jennifer Delgado
Chicago Tribune reporters
8:36 a.m. CDT, August 29, 2013
A trucking company (click here) based in
the southwest suburbs that owes the Illinois Tollway almost $215,000 in
unpaid tolls and fines leads a list of "super scofflaws" that the toll
road agency debuted on its website Wednesday.
The roster of 157 companies has amassed unpaid missed tolls and
penalties totaling almost $3.7 million, with some violations dating back
as long as 10 years, according to the Illinois State Toll Highway
Authority.
Yet representatives from several of the businesses that the Tribune
contacted said the Tollway's claims are inaccurate and that their
companies were being unjustly flogged in public....
