I spent $6.40 to drive on 90 miles of Illinois toll road

These tolls were supposed to be paid for YEARS ago, at least that's what they told us when I lived in IL. Tolls that used to be 40 cents are now 80 cents or more for people who don't have the I-PASS, which means out-of-staters going to Chicago for the day.

For that kind of money I should have been served a Latte and Danish upon entering the state and a nice cold drink upon leaving.

In Wisconsin, we let people drive on our roads for free, even the people from Illinois.

And you have to pay double if you pay cash instead of having IPass.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/hottopic/irs_history.html

The origin of the income tax on individuals is generally cited as the passage of the 16th Amendment, passed by Congress on July 2, 1909 and ratified February 3, 1913; however, its history actually goes back even further. "Its roots go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and Congress, in 1862, created the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income tax was repealed 10 years later. Congress revived the income tax in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year." (emphasis added)

Wow, had to make a tax to pay for extra expenditure in the late 1800s.

In the early 2000s, we are cutting taxes to pay for a theoretically infinitely bigger war? :crazy:

Sorry, but I'm getting fed up with Wisconsin people constantly whining about FIBS and in general the State of Illinois.

If you don't want us FIBS spending money in Wisconsin, I'll gladly oblige. After all, I guess those tourist spots of the Wisconsin Dells and Door County, don't need our money.

I use them whenever I head into the boondocks.

and it takes forever and a day to get anywhere once you get into the suburbs.

They're the Chicagoland area, places like where US-30 becomes a repitition of main drags for the towns 200 blocks south of Chicago.

I discovered very quickly that the expressway was no way to get anywhere. In many cases the city streets were faster.

billboards for talk radio that just said "We make liberals mad"...

And the huge taxes on gasoline and food...

And I've been in WI the last 6. The contrast has never seemed so big as it did today. I loved Chicago but now I don't know how I could deal with all the time it takes to get somewhere...

There are just too many cars on the roads, and thanks to George Ryan and all his pals, there is no money to upgrade any of them.

on the "beltline" if it takes them 15 minutes longer to get somewhere than it would during the middle of the night. I have to laugh because the years in Chicago have made me see it differently- I probably spent a couple years of my life on the Kennedy/Dan Ryan! But at least there was accessible public transportation in the city, and you could get by without a car if you tried. Not true in Madison, its very difficult to get around without a car.

The congestion in the suburbs is amazing, though, because it seems to be all day long and not just during rush hours. Maybe I just hit a bad day, but 2:30 was no better than 4:30.

The one thing I will admit to missing desperately is Giordanos Pizza. We have no such thing in WI!

850AM is AAR here during daylight hours.

Drive from Springfield, MO to Wichita Falls, TX, and see how much you spend. I think its 2-dollars and something at each plaza.

One thing they do have going for them, is there are no tolls in the large cities. You can drive all over Tulsa, Muskogee, or OKC, and not pay a toll.