Posted on 10/27/2009 5:00:16 PM PDT by Lorianne
The biggest change for Washington area drivers in coming years can be summed up in a single word.
Tolls.
Tolls on new roads. Higher tolls on existing roads. Tolls on new lanes. Higher tolls in rush hour. Local governments even plan to study a radical proposal to charge a toll every time you drive your car, even on a quick trip to the grocery store using side streets. (A GPS or other device would be used to calculate your bill.)
Why is this happening? Mostly because we need new roads and politicians are scared to raise the gasoline tax to pay for them. It's pretty much that simple.
It's also unfortunate, because increasing the gasoline tax is a smarter alternative. It would be more efficient, because the collection apparatus is in place and there'd be no need to pay for new E-ZPass equipment, tollbooths or machines to photograph license plates. It would spread the burden more equitably and avoid putting some roads and express lanes off-limits to the less-affluent.
But tolls are an acceptable alternative, given that our political class lacks the vision and leadership needed to persuade the public to accept a tax increase. Moreover, some kind of large-scale tolling might be unavoidable in the long run, because the gasoline tax will gradually generate less revenue as people switch to hybrids and electric cars.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Guess it’s time to start building my stealth SUV.
Funny - I thought taxes paid for the roads. Silly me.
2 words...faraday cage
More tolls instead of raising gasoline taxes?
Who’s willing to bet that they won’t do both?
This is idiotic...
Why are new roads needed? Because so many cars are jamming the existing roads...The cars on the existing roads...what kind of fuel do they use? Gasoline? So, many, many, many new cars are jamming the roads and using gasoline, but there is no additional tax revenue from existing gas tax rates? This makes no sense.
Other than isolating New Castle County, Delware, I say that’s a capital idea!
Other than isolating New Castle County, Delaware, I say that’s a capital idea!
They could afford to pay for the roads if they didn’t spend the money on waste, fraud, corruption, nonsense programs, and fat-cat pensions and benefits for government employees. Time for government in this country to go back to building roads, fighting wars, and protecting the borders and abandon all this nanny-state nonsense.
They could afford to pay for the roads if they didn’t spend the money on waste, fraud, corruption, nonsense programs, and fat-cat pensions and benefits for government employees. Time for government in this country to go back to building roads, fighting wars, and protecting the borders and abandon all this nanny-state nonsense.
The congestion in Northern Virginia caused me to move to Alabama in 1993. Soon, the missus and I will retire to our lake place in an Alabama county with 31,000 people total.
It’s kinda nice...
Tolls for local trips? I’m not a convict. I have a right to come and go as I please without the gov’t penalizing me for it. That’s a violation of a basic human right if I can’t exit my property without paying the gov’t. I understand toll roads, per se. But no one’s charging me for driving up and down Main Street.
Sure it does. All you have to remember is that the politicians have been stealing the gas tax revenues for YEARS to build "mass transit" projects involving choo-choo trains. It takes a LOT of money to build a complete system of new infrastructure alongside the existing highway network.
You'll be able to exit your property without paying, just not in a car. The liberal idiots want you to ride a bike.
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