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 ...
This is a chance to create another TSA to employ unionized democrats and harass citizens at their own expense.
I would love that,,,,and I would like a refund:
I never had any kids. Therefore, I did NOT impact the school system.
I owned one house for 29 years.
I inherited another house/paid taxes for my Dad for 25 years.
I owned my next house for 17 years.
I have been in this house for 9 ++ years.
That adds up to 80 years of paying property taxes with approx 50% going to the schools.
I am only 74 years old!!
Living on SS, I certainly could use such refund!!
How is a fuel tax paid by everyone? Only those who buy fuel (presumably to power their motor vehicles) pay the tax.”””
There is hardly a single item in the USA commerce stream which is not delivered by a TRUCK at some time in the delivery path.
Therefore, EVERY SINGLE person pays for those taxes in the retail cost of those products.
Now, adding tolls to current Interstates is another matter”””
Here is another thought:
California took all the toll collectors off the Golden Gate bridge. You have to have a prepaid toll account with authorities, or you have to find a place in San Fran where you can buy passage if you are a tourist, or whatever.
IF you go thru without paying, the cameras will collect enough information to BILL you—with lots of add ons for the costs. Even rental cars are involved in this.
IF they try to make us pay tolls on the Interstates, will they be building toll booths? I don’t think so. They will install a camera system. How would one pay in advance for such travel? It will be worse thanObamacare.
AND -—THEY WILL HAVE COMPLETE INFORMATION ABOUT ALL OF OUR TRAVELS.
Collecting ‘tolls’ is just a smoke & mirrors cover for knowing where we all travel, since many of us do NOT have GPS in our vehicles.
Get used to flying again - it will soon be MUCH CHEAPER.”””
1. This will killl the hunting /fishing industry, along with many other tourist destinations. No one will be entering National Parks, etc.
2. I cannot fly my horses.
EVERY single on/of ramp will need a tool booth!!!
Think about how many such locations there are in Los Angeles alone!!!
You forgot /s
They never get rid of a tax.
More taxes/fees mean bigger govt. It never stops
Letting roads return to dirt? I was thinking that was a good idea last time I drove within the city of Cleveland. The pot holes were huge. No pot holes with dirt roads. I figure if the speed limit is 25 or 35 tops anyways, then why not.
All sorts of taxes involved in flying too. Taxes are piled on top of airline tickets to “pay for” all those airports—there has never been a private self-funded airport that commercial air passengers used in this country that I know of; the government has always had their grubby hands in that racket via the Airport and Airways Trust Fund (and predecessors).
The federal government used to charge a 10¢ tax on passenger rail tickets until they rescinded it some time in the 1960s. (79¢ in 2014 dollars, when adjusted from 1961.) None of that revenue ever went to “pay for” the railroad infrastructure—it all got dumped into the general fund.
They could install camera systems on “free” interstates too.
Ideally, the toll roads ought to be private concerns. But this is not the kind of government we have in DC that’s friendly to that. The interstate system should have never been a public works project.
Only the main road in my little town is paved.
It ain’t nothin.
In 1985 Truckers were calling it the Rebar Express. I hated taking loads up north especially headed for New Jersey and points north. The higher the toll the worse the road.
You won’t get an argument from me on that one. Anything that imposes costs directly on the user is actually grounded in sound economics. It’s when you have costs paid by people who aren’t direct uses that you get major distortions and unsound economics.
None of these maintenance costs are paid out of the state's motor fuel taxes.
It's a "flaw" if one or both of these conditions result from it:
1. The elimination of taxes for certain types of vehicles means you can have two motorists using the same public infrastructure and not paying the same costs for it. That's hardly a sound proposition.
2. Motorists have their taxes reduced, yet the cost of the public infrastructure has to be covered by someone else. I don't see how that makes any sense.
One of the reasons why the tolls are so high on the Turnpike is that they're in the midst of a 10-12 year project to completely rebuild the roadway from end to end. This isn't just a resurfacing project -- it's a complete demolition of the original concrete roadway and the construction of new subgrade, base and concrete slab. It's the first time this is being done since the road opened in 1940. That's an amazing indication of the durability of the original road.
The price tag for this project is at least $2 billion. That's a lot of money for a highway project.
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