I don’t see tolls as the end-all problem most people do. The bridge has to be funded. However, it’s utterly mind-boggling why Washington residents have to pay income tax to Oregon just to work there. Don’t they pay Oregon sales tax when they step out for lunch?
Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax because it has a huge income tax. Washington doesn’t have an income tax because it has a huge sales tax.
Oregon doesn't have any sales tax. Washington doesn't have any income tax.
Yes, it's weird to pay taxes on income in a state you don't live in, but that's the law. NBA players have to pay income tax in Oregon for the games they play in Oregon, even if they live in Texas or Florida.
The bridge in question is on I-5. It's the busiest road in the State, it's the highway that connects the West Coast from Mexico to California. There is not one other toll on it.
There is zero reason that it should not be paid for out of the same taxes that maintain all 46,000 miles of Interstate which includes innumerable numbers of bridges and extensive overpasses.
Why no tolls on this? I'm sure it cost more to build then the simple 1 mile bridge across the Columbia.
I suspect one reason it can't be paid for with highway taxes is the insistence of the Socialist Retards that it MUST carry the Crime Train into Vancouver, so that we, too, can be enriched by the wandering thugs of vibrant street gangs. Which means that it can't be paid for (exclusively) probably by gas-tax highway funds.