UChicago research group suggests 75-cent toll for DuSable Lake Shore Drive
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Could DuSable Lake Shore Drive be part of the solution to Chicago's $35 billion pension crisis?
A group of University of Chicago students thinks so.
Last week, the U of C's Harris School of Public Policy announced the winners of its first-ever Innovation Challenge – in which students were asked to devise solutions for the city's unfunded pension liabilities.
Grad students Syed Ahmad, James Karsten, Liam Gluck, Greg Rudd, and Anthony Beaupre made up the winning team. They received a $10,000 award for their proposal, which was also chosen at a live pitch event on Wednesday of last week.
The team's proposal to deal with the city's pension crisis called for a 75-cent toll on DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
It also called for deregulating marijuana licensing to expand the number of dispensaries and thus the tax revenue, updating the process for vacant lot sales to increase transactions and thus taxes, and increasing police and firefighter employee pension contributions to 11.5%.
Jack Brofman, executive director for global treasury operations at UChicago, mentored the team.
"The judges and I were extremely impressed by the breadth of the team's focus, the depth of their analysis, and the creativity of their thinking in tackling the city's pension crisis," UChicago Research Professor Justin Marlowe, who led the competition and is the director of Harris's Center for Municipal Finance, said in a news release. "Simply put, these ideas – as well as others from our terrific group of finalists – are ones that policymakers should take seriously."
On the Chicago subreddit Monday, the toll idea was not very popular.
"I already pay for the city sticker," one Redditor wrote. "Don't charge me to use one of the main roads in the city."
"As a Hyde Park driver who drives to the burbs every day, gonna have to say nope," another wrote. "I'd just avoid it if they did this. Traffic would just increase in the Dan Ryan."
Others suggested that revenue could be generated by fines through stronger enforcement of traffic laws – in particular when it comes to speeding.
"You would probably generate more money by simply putting in a speed camera on DLSD but people would lose their minds over that," a Redditor wrote.
"Speed cameras for 10+ mph over the limit (especially around that S curve, but also other spots). I see no good reason to not have it," another wrote. "It's wild how unsafe LSD is. We might as well get revenue from it if the cameras won't stop the speeding."
Others called broader fiscal reform for the city. And a few said they would welcome a toll on DuSable Lake Shore Drive because they don't like the lakefront roadway.
"Anything that makes LSD less desirable to use I'm all for it," a Redditor said. "F**k that highway and all the noise and carnage it wreaks on what should be some of the most pleasant real estate in America."
