The Illinois Tollway Authority is threatening to blackball 90,000 Indiana residents who use I-Pass transponders.
The Illinois Tollway Authority on Thursday authorized the termination of those accounts if a border war over discounts on the Indiana Toll Road cannot be resolved.
"We don't view this as an Illinois vs. Indiana issue," said tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis. "But it's ITR's (toll road operator) failure to treat all Toll Road customers equally."
At issue is the start of I-Zoom electronic tolling on the Indiana Toll Road in June.
Private toll road operator ITR Concession Co. originally said it would not offer the 40 percent discount available to its I-Zoom customers to people who use I-Pass transponders.
That outraged Illinois officials, who grant all users of I-Pass, including those from Indiana, a 50 percent discount on the Illinois Tollway.
The Tollway Authority, ITR and officials from the Indiana Finance Authority and Indiana Department of Transportation negotiated on the issue Wednesday, but no resolution was reached.
The state of Indiana is involved because it is paying an estimated $278 million for the I-Zoom commuter discount on the Toll Road.
ITR offered to extend the 40 percent discount to I-Pass users, but only if they first register on a Web site. They also want all I-Zoom users to pay a $1 monthly user fee. They also would pay a $10 fee to get the transponder.
ITR spokesman Matthew Pierce said the offer made by his company is a fair one. The sign-up requirement for I-Pass users is not an inconvenience, he said. The $1-per-month user fee for I-Zoom is to be used to cover administrative fees.
More importantly, it lets people just use one transponder.
"One tag, many roads," Pierce said. "That's what we want."
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