Posted on 06/05/2017 6:48:49 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Solving traffic issues across our state is an age-old problem.
Southern Nevada faces gridlock as the area continues to expand. Northern Nevada's geography makes road construction and rehab trickier.
But the appetite for taxes, which help build our roads, is weak. One potential solution? Toll roads.
Tom Skancke is a lobbyist and transportation expert who thinks toll roads could be a great way for Nevada to help improve its infrastructure.
"What I'm suggesting is that more states around the country and particularly in the West -- in the Intermountain West -- have a serious conversation about more toll lanes," he said.
Skancke said one of the reasons toll lanes need to be on the table is because of a lack of fuel tax funds. He said the fuel tax hasn't been raised since 1993 and money from the tax only started pouring into the highway fund in 2005. He said that is one of the reasons infrastructure is failing around the country.
"What I'm suggesting is, not just here in the state of Nevada, but across the country, we've got to start having a legitimate conversation about how we fund our infrastructure," he said. "And I gotta tell you -- it's not going to happen in Washington, D.C.
He believes the country needs to be looking at all kinds of transportation solutions, from toll roads to high-speed rail, and all the different ways to pay for them.
"This is America! We should be paying for the stuff that we use!" he exclaimed."Our parents and grandparents paid for an interstate system that our generation has let crumble."
Skancke argues that America cannot compete with other countries and move its economy forward on "failing infrastructure systems." Beyond just wanting the improvements, he believes it is 'immoral' to borrow money from other countries to pay for it.
And in Nevada, he doesn't believe taxes to pay for transportation improvements should be pushed onto tourists.
"If we're going to drive on our roads, we should pay for it," he said.
He pointed to the problems after the recession when state and local tax revenues dropped considerably as tourists stopped coming to Las Vegas. Skancke believes toll lanes could be used on Interstate 15 all the way to San Diego, and along the new Interstate 11 to Phoenix.
While his article focused on toll lanes in the western United States, what he really wanted to do was start a national conversation about how the country pays for infrastructure.
"The demand and the need for more infrastructure in America [are] there," Skancke said. "We have neglected our interstate highway and our national highway system for the past 30 years."
Tom Skancke, transportation expert
Dear Tom,
Shut up.
Love, Laz
Toll roads would hit electric cars the same as conventional engine cars.
Electric cars don’t pay any gas taxes.
...asks toll radio.
No, toll roads are most certainly the wrong answer as is the stupid pay for use at the pump proposal.
One of the things that is making tolling more attractive to state governments is that it offers a mechanism for collecting revenue from people and businesses outside the state who otherwise wouldn't be paying any taxes in that state. This is especially true in smaller states in the Northeast. In many vehicle models you can probably drive from Maine to Maryland on I-95 on a single tank of gas -- a trip that will cover ten states. It's ludicrous to suggest that the taxpayers of those states should foot the bill on their own for the maintenance and repair of the road.
Can the funds be kept out of the state’s general fund and the operation of the roads lept out of the hamds of commercial interests both foreign and domestic?
“Anything that requires the users of a public product or service to pay for it directly is a good thing”
Then privatize them completely, sell them to the highest bidder and get the government completely out of the road and road maintenance business.
Make the government pay for using the roads same as everyone else.
Privatize traffic enforcement get government out of that business.
If you do it, do it right. Don’t simply give government access to a new revenue stream. Save us money.
Interstate highways have long carried oit of state travellers. The trucking industry that uses them pays fuel taxes and possibly through licensing fees.
Also those gas funds go out of state and are then divided up by the federal government.
That’s a tough lift, mainly because private industry can’t run a highway system as cost-effectively as the government for a number of reasons. This is being demonstrated in most of the cases where toll authorities cut deals with investors for long-term leases on these assets (the Indiana Turnpike, for example). There’s a reason why it’s almost always foreigners who invest in these things: American investors were smart enough to steer clear of them.
Federal and state fuel taxes are collected separately. The states don’t pay any of their state fuel taxes to the Federal government.
Toll roads are always the wrong answer.
The toll should be like a slot machine. Then when you drop your coin in and at least you have chance of hitting the jackpot.
The concept is to charge people money for use of the roads in order to get them out of their cars and into public transit.
That's you, you know.
Toll roads kill tourism.
Tell that to all the people who sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Garden State Parkway every Friday afternoon in the summertime, driving down to the Jersey Shore.
“That’s you, you know.”
That’s not what they think.
The government take gas tax revenue and uses it for other purposes. They would do the same thing with this revenue.
Nope. Privatize it all, or live with the revenue from the gas tax.
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