Chicago O’Hare is expanding. And if you’re renting a car at O’Hare in August and beyond, you’ll be paying for it.

[Chicago's city council] today approved without dissent a measure backed by Mayor Richard Daley to charge [at least $8 more per day] on rentals at O’Hare to cover the cost of a consolidated rental-car center needed to accommodate two new runways that are to be built as part of the O’Hare Modernization Plan.

City Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said earlier this week that the fee will likely be around $8 each day on cars rented at O’Hare, but said she could seek to raise it considerably if the cost of the rental facility ends up being higher than anticipated.

The new fee, which should be in place by August, would go on top of an existing $2.75 flat fee and an 8 percent tax on O’Hare rentals.

How might this look? Here’s a sample rental today, before the fee kicks in. You’ll see the current $2.75 flat fee and the 8% tax in there, but obviously no $8 fee (yet):

This is a rental with National, on a base rate of $42.90, fyi.

Adding $8 to that menu would make the total fees $20.32 on a $42.90 base rental, or 47.3% in taxes and mandatory fees.

But hold on, there’s more… This comment from the city’s aviation commissioner, which partially justifies the fee: “The per-day rental fee at LAX airport in Los Angeles is $18.”

Why, if LAX charges $18 on top of their other fees, then Chicago charging $8 would be a veritable bargain! Except that LAX doesn’t charge $18 a day.

Here, see for yourself. Same car rental company, same car class, same base rate of $42.90 a day, but at LAX:

I don’t see an $18 charge in there. I see a bunch of charges, yes, including a $10 charge. And these fees are steep — 49.1% of the base rate, to be precise. But if Chicago is going to point to LAX as an example of high fees, they should try to be more honest about it.