Posted on 04/26/2017 1:13:08 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Why on God’s green Earth has the state legislature dawdled on the question of whether or not to extend tolling on the West Virginia Turnpike? Seriously. We have looked all around the issue for the past few years and have not found a single, solitary good reason the $2 fee shouldn’t be continued once the bonds are paid off in May 2019.
Under current state law, toll collections will cease, the Parkways Authority will disband and the commissioner of Highways will assume oversight of the Turnpike the year after next if legislators fail to amend current legislation.
Forget – in the short term – that legislative inaction makes hostages of Authority employees who cannot know what the future holds for their employment prospects.
Forget – in the short term – that Authority officials may have to write special and more expensive construction contracts for any project extending beyond two years.
Forget – in the short term – that any vacancy in staffing might have to be filled by temporary workers who would earn a grand sum of $9.68 an hour with no benefits. Yeah, how difficult do you think it would be to find qualified and reliable labor – on a temporary basis – at $20,000 a year?
For legislators suffering from short-term memory loss, here is your wake up call:
● Around $90 million is collected in annual toll revenues, with $67 million coming from out-of-state drivers.
● There are some 400 West Virginia Turnpike employees who pay taxes, spend grocery money, send kids to school, buy cars and enjoy a dinner out every once in awhile.
● The four-lane Turnpike running through some of the most mountainous terrain in the East consists of 88 miles of highway, representing 426 miles of road, 116 bridges, 18 interchanges, four toll plazas, three travel plazas, a welcome center, two rest areas, 300,000 square feet of facilities, 6,428 culverts, 4,070 road signs, 900 roadway lights and 595 acres of area mowed within the right-of-way.
If the tolls go away, the state would be back on the hook for the upkeep of all of that. With a $500 million budget deficit looming this coming fiscal year and a projected $700 million the year after next, just where is that road money coming from?
If the tolls are not extended, the state’s Division of Highways – not exactly flush with cash lying around the office – is going to be responsible for all the paving, bridge painting, bridge deck replacement, snow and ice removal and all of the maintenance of the highway. Price tag? An estimated $60 million per year.
There’s an old idiom about looking a gift horse in the mouth that applies to our state’s legislative leaders. Shouldn’t they just be thankful for the gift that is the Parkways Authority? For a smooth ribbon of highway from the coalfields to the capitol? For safer passage on snowy days?
It would be fair to suggest that the state is in its current financial firestorm because it has legislative leaders, delegates and senators who do not know how to manage success – let alone respond to failure.
Remind us, how were all of those coal severance taxes of the past invested? Do we have world-class universities and medical centers? Do we have excellent roads all across the state? Are our communities growing? Has broadband been extended to every nook and cranny? Did we diversify our economy?
The Turnpike Authority and the tolls are working. Beautifully. Why mess with that?
It is no small wonder the state is where it is given this one simple example of how – by passing legislation that would extend tolling on the Turnpike – we can’t seem to appreciate and replicate success, let alone recognize it when we’re slapped upside the head.
Ask them in NYCity where their monthly toll road EZPass bill is starting to look like their mortgage payment
I thought the WV Turnpike was paid for years ago.
Also, they have a $0.40 toll at one place, why not just make it easier for everyone and make it either $0.50 or $1.00?
Kill the tolls.
We were supposed to on the Golden Gate bridge, once it was paid for.
All they’ll do is keep jacking up the tolls to pay for the latest transportation pork, busses, trains....
Probably not a single solitary good reason, but certainly a laudable idea that a Government would keep their promise to terminate a tax when the bonds it was designated for are paid off. Someone better put a stop to this before it spreads.
Of course. In the statists’ minds, money should continue to be taken from citizens, with NOTHING in return. A boot stomping a human face, forever.
The answer for them is simple: Issue new bonds before 2019 so tolls will be required to pay the new debt.
These blankety blanks.
They have it backwards.
The question should not be, what reason is there that the toll shouldn’t be continued.
The question should be, what reason is there that the toll should be continued.
There’s a difference.
The onus should be on those who want to continue the toll, after the reason for the toll is gone. The onus should not be on us, to have to ask them why they won’t delete the toll as agreed to, when the bonds are paid off.
Toll roads in Texas can read a license plate @ 200 mph. No Humans required.
In a world with self driving cars, toll booth worker’s “good jobs” making change are the reason to keep the tolls?
WV can vote Republican, but the backward Democrat mindset is hard to shake.
An excellent and appropriate literary reference.
I can’t think of one solitary reason to subscribe to the Beckley Idiot Opinion rag.
Not one single solitary one.
How about “because you sold construction of it on the toll ending when the bonds were paid”?
At worst they could still layoff the collection crew, make it $.50-$1.00 and put quarter baskets in with arms over the drive lane.
all of the maintenance of the highway. Price tag? An estimated $60 million per year.
What have they done with the 30 million annual profit?
Thanks. Orwell was not wrong.
People NEVER learn.
There is NO SUCH THING as a temporary tax, fee, or toll. Ask the long-suffering people of Northern Illinois. The tollway authority there is a criminal cash machine tha the Mafia and drug cartels could only DREAM about. With the government as the enforcers, to boot.
Why end the tolls? Because politicians promised the tolls would end and so they should. My father predicted they wouldn’t.
Forget – in the short term – that legislative inaction makes hostages of Authority employees who cannot know what the future holds for their employment prospects.
So now the primary purpose of a road is to provide government employment for life. Triple face-palm indeed.
No kidding. I just wish Leftists didn’t like to use his work as an instructional manual.
Thanks Tol, and thanks for the ping yesterday.
Generally when one reads something this ONE SIDED, there’s more going on than meets the eye...as in some ‘cozy’ relationships. I suspect something similar here, as it’s not like the people in WV, after being the prime target of the Dems (due to their coal mining) are swimming around in money they don’t need.
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