Posted on 06/17/2017 5:01:39 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Do not ask for whom the road tolls; it tolls for thee.
Good points. I guess in Florida the ability to get somewhere without taking the toll road is easier. It normally adds about 5-10 minutes on to the trip which sometimes I decide to take depending on where I am going. I understand that not all states set it up that way for one reason or another.
I see the NIMBY type concern trolls are out in full force on this one...
Paying toll for road usage is fine as long as ALL of the proceeds go to maintaining the road and NO additional tax money is spent on the road
“Replacing one tax with another never works. You always end up with both.”
And taxpayers have already put up the money to build the roads.
Polls=Taxes
OK I’m way out here in West Texas where we have one interstate highway that I rarely travel, but to be honest I have no problem taxing the people who actually use the road as opposed to taxing everybody. Tobacco has a separate Tax, alcohol has a separate Tax, oil, gas an it’s byproducts have a separate Tax. Now with that said I would only agree if there was an overall drop in the per gallon gas Tax.
Pa turnpike is a gov’t run entity. Everything the gov’t touches has lower quality and increased costs
I am calling for full real privatization, not bogus lease or concession.
It interesting that so called conservatives believe in the free market and despise welfare - but demand socialism for interstates
Thanks...same further in the Northeast. Maybe some day I’ll try driving a a round trip from the Northeast corner of New Jersey to the southern tip...first on the Parkway (a toll road, but reasonable rates, since it’s not private), then repeating the trip, but avoiding the parkway (using the best alternative routing that Google maps gives me). And let’s say that both trips begin from the same spot on a weekday, at the same time (probably 0900) That would be fun!
“Paying toll for road usage is fine as long as ALL of the proceeds go to maintaining the road and NO additional tax money is spent on the road”
Exceedingly rare. In Houston, they now collect more money than they can can use from our toll roads, but rather than pay off the bonds, they send it to the city, so that Mayor Turner can use the money for his ‘priorities’ (hint, one of them is not transportation).
In Pennsylvania, the state had the opportunity to put up toll booths on the now-free I-80, under one condition, the money was only used for the highway. The proposal got REJECTED by Obama’s bunch (about the only thing they ever did right), because the state wanted to take the extra proceeds and send them to their mass transit friends in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (which was not permitted by the legislation). They were told to re-submit, but to only use the money on I-80. The state said no thanks, the tolling level would be so low as not to be worth the effort to collect anything.
“I have no problem taxing the people who actually use the road...”
What gets our backs up is when the money is DIVERTED to ‘other priorities’, such as public buses in big cities (as is being done in Houston, and was proposed for Pennsylvania). The cost to maintain highways, particularly in West Texas is next to nothing...but the amount of value they provide for transport is huge - which is why public tolling rates are usually several times the cost of what a freeway would have cost - and private operations, the ones that really get us pissed, are usually 10 to 20 times the cost of maintaining the road, as the investors have to ‘buy-in’ to get control of the road - in other words, give billions to the state governments for putting up the toll booths...and, of course, they then have to recover that money.
“It interesting that so called conservatives believe in the free market and despise welfare - but demand socialism for interstates”
It’s called CRONY CAPITALISM when states hand out monopoly-protected concessions on highways. But then you know that, but never want to debate it.
If he and the republican controlled assembly and senate do this I’ll not bot for any of those responsible ever again. Once a tax is created it never goes away.
“If he and the republican controlled assembly and senate do this I’ll not bot for any of those responsible ever again. Once a tax is created it never goes away.”
That’s how it works. New Jersey has some of the biggest toll roads in the country (probably the biggest, by revenue), and has the HIGHEST TAXES in the country at the same time. All that new taxes do is breed corruption.
I first read it as “trolling”, along the lines of the Sasse/Orrin Hatch prank.
What are we paying taxes for, again?
Bob,
full privatization of interstates means just that. Auction off title to the land and improvements - simple.
that’s not a crony capitalist lease. It’s letting the free market do its stuff.
I love the thought of fully privatized interstates too. One huge problem though. Reducing gas and licencing taxes will never go down.
Only charge tolls to Illinois plates - everybody wins!
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