- to help its admittedly challenged transportation infrastructure, the state of illinois doubled its gas tax in july and is raising vehicle-related fees as of january 1, 2020.
- state dealer fees, vehicle registration fees, and new title fees are all going up, as peoria's 25 news reported.
- rebuild illinois will raise over $44 billion, and it will spend $33 billion of it on transportation improvements in the state.
big money for illinois transportation infrastructure is about to hit car buyers in the state in a lot of small ways. a package of bills known collectively as rebuild illinois has been going into effect throughout 2019, with more increased fees coming into play on january 1, 2020.
as part of rebuild illinois, the state doubled its gas tax from $0.19 per gallon to $0.38 per gallon earlier this year. also in july, the cost for a new title went up $55 (to $150). at the start of 2020, the vehicle registration fee will go up $50 (to $151), and the state dealer fee will be increased by $125 (to $300). the illinois automobile dealers association supported that last fee increase in order to "help to reimburse dealers for the ever-expanding list of state and federal mandates related to the sale of motor vehicles," the group's website says.
the state is also changing the way it values tax credits for trade-ins. until now, the state had given a credit for the full value of the vehicle that was traded in. on january 1, only the first $10,000 of a traded-in vehicle will be counted for this credit. wrap all of these increases together, and rebuild illinois will end up adding a few hundred dollars to the price of every car purchased in the state.
there are crumbling reasons for all of these increases and the other funding sources included in rebuild illinois. a spokeswoman for illinois governor j.b. pritzger told car and driver that before he led the bipartisan effort to pass rebuild illinois, the state had gone nearly a decade without a comprehensive plan to repair the roads and bridges. the plan will make roads in every corner of the state safer, the spokeswoman said, and, she added: "a variety of revenue sources will be solely dedicated to fixing our crumbling infrastructure, putting over half a million people to work and revitalizing communities across illinois." on twitter, the governor called rebuild illinois "the largest, most robust capital plan in state history."
while rebuild illinois is meant to address more than just transportation—it includes money for things like renewable energy projects and increasing access to broadband internet—the bulk of the $44.5 billion total that rebuild illinois will collect, $33.2 billion, will go toward transportation projects. the governor's website calls rebuild illinois "the largest investment in state history to upgrade roads, bridges, rail, broadband, and universities in every corner of the state." of that, $25.3 billion will go towards roads and bridges and $4.7 billion will be invested in mass transit throughout the state.