:: they start with the goal to just pay for the roads, but by the time they’re paid for, they became a damn jobs program and extra ‘free’ money for the local governments to use as their own personal cash cow ::
Google “I-294” or “Chicago’s TriState Tollway”. Toll-funding was designed to be continuous while being sold to the public as a bond-type construction.
And know the pols can get the cash up front by selling the cash cow to private so-called "investors."
Here in Georgia the 400 toll road was supposed to be as long as it took to pay off. The governor tried to renege on that and extend it, then all hell broke loose and he had to open it up - no more toll.