Posted on 04/30/2014 3:59:00 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
...the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs.
The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtonpost.com ...
No decision the govt makes is to its detriment.
GTH, WH.
Of course. But it’s no different than saying we’re all users of the electrical grid because every business passes on its energy costs to its customers. You wouldn’t expect to have everyone get “free” electricity that’s financed through a tax on every purchase of a product or service, would you?
Isn't that what high gasoline taxes are for?
Just another source of revenue for the greedy Bas####s.
How about putting the cost of education only on folks w/kids in school?
It’s government’s way of fleecing those most equipped to actually earn a tax-paying living.
The poor, the entitled, the leeches won’t have to worry about it on their government subsidized public transportation on the way down to the welfare office, to/from their Section 8 housing.
Just more taxes, strangulation of business and commerce and eventual price increases in the economy so the government can maintain its bloated carcass.
Yeah that was me.
The sad thing is that plenty of revenue is collected to take care of the interstate highway system unfortunately some 30% is skimmed right off the top before we even consider spending money on transportation. Then the states and feds blow money on unnecessary crap at an astounding rate.
In Detroit, the people mover is rider funded at a rate of about 3% with the other 97% picked up by taxpayers in the form of transportation funding and other taxpayer money. Lord knows how much money we spend for AMTRAK to run empty trains all over the country. Several cities use federal funds to put sensors in parking lots so people can use phone aps to find parking spaces.
My county recently approved $2 million from federal transportation funds to tear down a concrete wall that should have never been built in a county park. Fortunately the outrage forced them to go looking for money elsewhere. We did pay several hundred thousand to repave a bike path across town not to mention the ongoing cost of keeping it plowed during the winter.
One more economy crusher.
...and your CHANGE.
The West Virginia Turnpike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Turnpike
Is still a toll road, commissioned in 1952
At the time, it was the most expensive turnpike ever built, per mile. My Father floated the bond issue that created it, and had the first bond printed in his office. It’s maintanance is still a major cost item. I understand well why it it is charging tolls.
On the bright side, we’ll all get to see more of America because we’ll be taking alternate scenic routes rather than paying the toll on the King’s road.
An excellent idea that will never happen in these united socialist states of america
That’s true, but it will seriously clog up those local roads.
Exactly. Tax then subsidize. I’m amazed societal inertia has us still moving. We’re dead.
I'm curious as to why you consider this a flaw. I'd consider anything that reduces taxes to the citizen to be an advantage or a strength.
This is always preferred to a tax scheme where a lot of the costs of the infrastructure are paid by everyone.
How is a fuel tax paid by everyone? Only those who buy fuel (presumably to power their motor vehicles) pay the tax.
Toll roads, toll interstates, are at this point a repressive anti-freedom proposition. Why the heck d’ya think the WH is putting its dirty thumb in this pie? Control and surveillance of movements with loss of privacy & free movement. Bottlenecks real and contrived (”Beeline” “expressway” after a Cana eral shuttle launch comes to mind). Don’t fall it.
Oddly enough I actually came around to agreeing with Jenny Granholm’s idea of allowing some roads to return to dirt.
30 years ago where I was grew up oil and gas infrastructure was going in and the heavy truck traffic was destroying the dirt roads so they paved them all. Today, the trucks are mostly gone and we still maintain paved roads where there are 1 or 2 houses per mile and might see 5 or 10 vehicles per day.
What does that have to do with Obama collecting tolls for federal interstates? Other than the fact that they refer to roads?
When we first moved to brevard co fl, the road that connected Orlando(orange co) to the beach in brevard county was a toll road. Road was paid for in the 80’s and brevard tried to remove toll booths, but the toll collectors said they have to collect enough to tear down the booths first. Story I heard was a contractor volunteered to tear down the booths. Bottom line: brevard county got rid of tolls on roads....Orange County has only added more toll roads.. Of course they were growing by leaps and bounds.
The West Virginia Turnpike is now a Federal Interstate I-77. When it was upgraded, 90% funds were Federal. It, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, cut through very difficult Appalachian mountain terrain to connect North-South and East-West Mid-states.
Both still operate off of Tolls
Now, adding tolls to current Interstates is another matter
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