Ravenwood - 05/02/05 06:15 AM
Congress is preparing to make it more expensive to drive the nation's interstate highway system. The formerly "free" highways could soon be littered with toll booths, reports the Boston Globe.
A provision in the $284 billion highway bill under consideration on Capitol Hill could open the way for more tolls on the nation's congested interstates, marking a departure from long-standing federal highway policy that has traditionally frowned on collecting tolls to pay for roads built with federal tax dollars...President Bush supports the bill.Currently, only highways such as the Massachusetts Turnpike that were begun before the establishment of the free interstate system in 1956 can collect tolls.
The proposal marks a response to the growing clamor among state highway officials that the federal government's gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon is no longer enough to fund the nation's transportation needs. Congress has little appetite to raise the tax, leaving tolls as one of the few remaining funding options for road builders.
"Gas taxes are deemed something we can't touch. It's political suicide to add a gas tax," said Neil Gray, a spokesman for the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association in Washington. "In that bind, what are your options? You can't do nothing."
you mean the people who actually use the system will have to pay for it??
The horror.
Posted by: MMW at May 2, 2005 10:47 AMYou know, I am really getting tired of republicans saying one thing and doing another. Their pork projects this year alone are at a staggering amount. I bet if they used it toward the roads they wouldn't have to worry about funding.
Posted by: Rhett at May 2, 2005 11:01 AMJesus Effing Christ!! This is an outrage! One of the very few things that are actually half-way JUSTIFIABLE to spend taxes on, and they want us to pay MORE for it.
Meanwhile, we're paying some crackhead in North Carolina millions a year to study PIG SHIT. Look it up, it's in the Federal Budget! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!
Posted by: Publius II at May 2, 2005 2:18 PMOh the benefits of EZPass/SmartTrip technology! If only this meant the demise of the federal hwy program (with control of existing rds reverting completely back to the states)...
Posted by: Bob at May 2, 2005 3:34 PMAll roads should be toll roads; owned and operated by private companies and subject to competition.
Posted by: Pasty at May 2, 2005 5:52 PMWhat bill hasn't President Bush supported?
I swear, the man is allergic to vetos.
Posted by: roger at May 3, 2005 12:17 PMNote that paying toll doesn't necessarily mean stopping at a toll booth anymore. The technology is definitely there to electronically collect toll at 75MPH, and that would be the fairest way to pay for the roads. But I've got two HUGE caveats:
1) Don't allow the electronic toll collection to turn into a vehicle tracking system. State and local cops will try to use it to prove you were driving too fast. The FBI will try to use it to follow you around. Anyone caught actually trying to implement any such idea should be tied up and tossed out in the fast lane. (Yep, I believe just two crimes deserve the death penalty: Murder, treason, and trying to take away our rights. And I didn't miscount.)
2) As the tolls go into effect all over the gas tax should be eliminated. Otherwise, we're paying twice.
Posted by: markm at May 3, 2005 12:17 PM>>As the tolls go into effect all over the gas tax should be eliminated. Otherwise, we're paying twice.
Ding Ding Ding Ding... we have comprehension.
That is the whole point is to get you to pay twice. And when the gas tax and tolls aren't enough, they'll get you to pay a third time with some other method.
Posted by: Ravenwood at May 3, 2005 3:26 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
