White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition.

[dixiegrrrrl]

You know those highways that were built with your tax dollars?
The Gov wants to tax them again.

With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, 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

.http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/white-house-opens-door-to-tolls-on-interstate-highways-removing-long-standing-prohibition/2014/04/29/5d2b9f30-cfac-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop

[Agschmid]

1. Mass Pike already has tolls... I pay 'em daily.

[dionysus]

49. i'm used to tolls as well. some speak as if this means the end of america or something...

[Agschmid]

68. It sure is an odd thread...

[jberryhill]

104. You mean "threads"

Multiple, duplicate and, uh, entirely spontaneous ones over something as trivial as a discussion of highway tolls.

[hfojvt]

93. no

but it really, really sucks

However, Kansas and Oklahoma also already have tolls on the interstate. On I-70 from KCK to Topeka, on I-335 from Topeka to Emporia and on I-35 from Emporia to the Oklahoma border.

In Oklahoma on I-44 from the Missouri border to the Texas border.

I hate paying tolls in the first place, but then on one trip I wanted to stop at Auburn, Kansas. I-335 goes right by Auburn.

Any Interstate would obviously have an exit for a town of 1100. Especially in Kansas where that is a fairly substantial town.

But not this one. And no exit for highway 56 either. Took me about twenty miles out of my way and ruined my itinerary for the day.

So with a toll road you pay more and you get worse service. It's a lose-lose.

[dionysus]

100. from what you described, i think the interstates of NY, MA, NH and ME have spoiled me.

tons of exits and rest stops in NY and MA (rest stops for food\gas every few exits it seems), and NH and ME are so small there's not the need for as many rest stops, but exits aplenty.

I've been driving those roads for 18 years, and was driven around on them for 18 years before that, so tolls are just a given for me.

[Laelth]

110. You may be used to tolls, but ...

100+ million Americans are not. I can see it now. Red state governors will hand out sweet construction and management deals to their cronies, cut taxes again thanks to all the new revenue, and then blame Obama and the Democrats for the increased taxes and irritation. Voters in red states will lap up their arguments and Democrats will suffer at the polls.

This proposal is remarkably short-sighted and tone deaf. It will spell political suicide for the Democratic Party in wide areas of the country, some of which, like my home state of Georgia, are on the verge of turning blue.

-Laelth

[dionysus]

111. well, since we can't get an appropriations bill through, or raise taxes due to fillibustering or the

house not even letting bills come up for a vote, where would you get the funds?

our roads are in terrible shape, they need to be fixed yesterday.

I think calling toll roads political suicide is hyperbole at best.

[Laelth]

114. We will simply have to reduce the amount that we give to the states for roads.

If the Republicans won't let us give an adequate amount to fund the maintenance of our Federal highways, we'll give what we can, but that does not mean we should eliminate the Federal ban on (most) toll booths on the Interstate Highway System (and that is, in fact, what's being proposed).

The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/white-house-opens-door-to-tolls-on-interstate-highways-removing-long-standing-prohibition/2014/04/29/5d2b9f30-cfac-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop

Do you not even care what impact this will have on Democrats across the country? Can you not even hear what I am saying?



-Laelth

[dionysus]

118. yes, i care, i just don't agree with your conclusion. you could be right, you could be wrong. nt.

[Laelth]

121. I admit that my crystal ball is not perfect.

The risk that I may be right, however, outweighs any possible benefit from passing this bill right now. If we don't pass this law, what's the worst that could happen? We wrangle with the Rs over a transportation bill and, perhaps, we underfund the system for a few years. If we pass this law, however, and if I'm right, we irritate and alienate 100+ million voters.

I can't see any way that this risk could possibly be worth taking.



-Laelth

[dionysus]

123. point taken. maybe because where a grew up, where i live, and driving between the two, there

have always been tolls, I misjudge the reaction. There have always been tolls as long as people remember, so we don't have a political revolt every time they are raised; it's just a cost of doing business and paying for repairs.

maybe it would cause some huge outcry added them to where they haven't before.

I do worry about continuing underfunding, though, because at some point (soon I am afraid), it will cause another huge, deadly bridge collapse or some other terrible accident.

we're at a point we can't even get funding for essential infrastructure anymore because of the rethugs, imagine that?

[Laelth]

124. There's very little we can get through the House, no doubt.

And I certainly agree that our national infrastructure (including roads and a lot of other public property) needs attention. There's no denying that.

Personally, as I have said elsewhere, I hope the President is bluffing on this issue. If so, it would be a bluff to the Republicans in the House--pass a transportation bill, or I am going to blame you for toll roads, and a bluff to the American people--get these Republican clowns out of Congress, or we're all going to have to pay higher taxes through tolls. Perhaps this bluff, if it is a bluff, will cause some movement in the House. Who knows?

Ultimately, in the event that the bill passes, I wish I could confidently say that my fellow Georgians will place the blame for these new, regressive taxes squarely where that blame belongs (on House Republicans). That said, I lack faith that the low-information voters in my state can make that connection, and it appears there's no will in the media to make that connection for them.

-Laelth

[dixiegrrrrl]

138. Can I just say here you are correct about that huge outcry, because

2/3 of the country does not have toll roads, state or Federal.
As you pointed out, there are state roads with tolls, on the East Coast.

some states, including the Pacific coast states, have toll bridges.

The issue of infrastructure repair is important, of course. The thing is, we could be repairing those roads and etc
if the Gov't would apply our tax dollars to doing so instead of giving it away in foreign entanglements.
Somehow we manage to come up with millions now to give to Urkraine, as the latest example.

My concern is that new tolls, on Interstate roads, is just another form of a tax, one which would be used to plug holes in the massive federal debt, and one that would be increased over time.

Case in point: The Golden Gate Bridge was built back in the '30's, and paid for by tolls, which were supposed to END when the cost of the bridge was met, projected to be sometime in the 1950s.
Of course tolls did not end. supposedly the toll money is going to upkeep of the bridge, but is also true that fund is robbed to pay for other state needs.
same is true of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge,in Washington State, which has been replaced twice now because it blew down in storms.
the tolls have not ended, but they have increased over the years.

[lumberjack_jeff]

127. The fact that northeasterners are acclimated to paying tolls to use their own public infrastructure

... is not relevant.

The rest of us are not so conditioned, and recognize it for what it is; regressive exploitation of those who have no elective representation.

[Agschmid]

133. You lost me...

I'm pretty sure most people on DU have elected representation (at least if they are in the US)... it may not be who you want it to be but guess what they still are your elected representative.

Please let me know what the hell you meant.

[Enthusiast]

134. +1!

Besides that it's a stupid fucking idea.

[NV Whino]

2. Jesus, we can't fly

Rail transportation is out of date to non existant, and now they want to tax interstate traffic.

Stop with the nonsense you idiots. Tax the damned 1%.

[Beartracks]

8. This. ^^^^^ +1000 n/t

[Cha]

15. They would if there weren't so many 1% asshole reps in the Senate and House.

[woo me with science]

33. All part of the plan.

This country is being transformed deliberately, and not in a good way for citizens.

[zeemike]

41. The plan is the ownership society.

Where the owners are the 1% and the rest of us pay the rent to use their property...and yes it is deliberate.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

42. On Wednesday's The Cycle on MSNBC, there was another piece of the picture featured

when one of the Cycle crew was tasked with making a the case for renting over owning a home.

I see effortlessly, every single day, pieces of the bigger picture of what is happening to us. I purposely avoiding using the word "puzzle" because what is happening isn't a puzzle at all. It's plain as the nose on your face. And it's scary in that there's nothing we can do about it individually and most people are complete oblivious to it. Indeed, about half the population actively supports the agenda of TPTB.

[zeemike]

57. I see it too.

But thy do it slow and incrementally so the average person don't even notice it.

But you can bet that a lot of that money made on Wall Street and gained by tax cuts is being used to buy up those homes foreclosed on and they will rent them out at high prices.
They will invest that money in property and the public will be squeezed out.

[dixiegrrrrl]

70. You are absolutely on target.

Massive numbers of foreclosed houses are being sold cheap, in blocks of purchases, and turned into rentals.
then the rental payments are being securitized just like mortgage payments were, and sold off as bonds.

see:Billion-dollar club: Rent companies form massive trade group ( 920 billion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024731437

Even trailer parks are being bought up:

Trailer Parks Lure Wall Street Investors Looking for Double-Wide Returns
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024836115

[zeemike]

80. Damn....I had no idea how right I was.

I did not know they were even scrutinizing them....
Thanks Dixiegrrrrl for that information.

[dixiegrrrrl]

85. have you heard of "rentier" capitalism?

Rentier capitalism is a term currently used to describe economic practices of parasitic monopolization of access to any (physical, financial, intellectual, etc.) kind of property, and gaining significant amounts of profit without contribution to society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentier_capitalism

[zeemike]

89. I first heard the term from Max Kaiser.

But I thought at first he just invented it.
But that wikipedia article explains it well...thanks.

[RKP5637]

52. Definitly what is ocurring, life will be a rental from the 1%. But what really gets to

me are damn fool Americans that vote for and support the 1% thinking they will bestow rewards of wealth on them. Frankly, Americans get what they deserve, because that is what they vote for, again and again. Having said that, however, without a major paradigm change, there will be no choice, the country is not owned by "we the people." "We the people" get a chance to vote for predetermined choices by the 1%. When it comes to $$$$$, there is not much of a difference. And SCOTUS has worked hard to rig the system to ensure "we the people" have limited predetermined choices when we vote, because $$$$$ owns the US.

[zeemike]

60. When you control the media you control the perception of the people.

And they control the media.

"He that controls the past controls the future, and he that controls the present controls the past" said George Orwell...and he was right.

[RKP5637]

61. IMO democrats are horrible when it comes to communication and the media, and control of the media

slipped through their fingers. The endless RW propaganda that clogs the airwaves is amazing. Yes, George Orwell was quite correct, as with many things.

[zeemike]

63. Well IMO

They play a game of good cop-bad cop with us...the GOP controls the message and the Dems pretend they can do nothing about it...but they all work for the same people.

[RKP5637]

66. Exactly!!! Well said!!! n/t

[villager]

102. Exactly. (n/t)

[truebrit71]

96. ^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^

[Enthusiast]

136. You are correct.

Why do they want to ruin the nation?

[mountain grammy]

35. could not agree more!

TAX THE RICH!

[Auggie]

77. +1,000,000: "Tax the damned 1%!!!"

[Bobbie Jo]

92. Agree

Now, get it through Congress.

That's where the rubber meets the road, as it were.


ETA: it will just sit behind unemployment insurance and minimum wage bills.

Platitudes are great, but this is what we have here, folks.

[betterdemsonly]

95. God I wish I could upvote this! n/t

n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

128. Yup. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

130. and cut the military budget...

Neither of these will happen until it is too f'ing late.

[Enthusiast]

135. +1 an entire shit load.

Tax the damned 1%!

[me b zola]

3. Ain't freedom great?

[SammyWinstonJack]

116. USA! USA! USA!

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. Ike would vomit.

[Marr]

5. And the general public picks up the tab for the 1%'s ultra-low taxes again. /nt

[pinboy3niner]

6. And loses substantial basic mobility in the process, based on ability to pay. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. It gets better...

states have been setting up toll roads over the past decade or so...for private enterprise to run and profit from.
The Fed. highway system will be the same, bet on it.

[Recursion]

47. I literally don't know anywhere on earth that doesn't contract out toll collection

Governments do it because it makes them more money.

[dixiegrrrrl]

82. You are saying you-literally- know every toll system on the planet

and know that all of them are contracted out?
That is a most impressive bit of knowledge.

Guess someone forgot to tell California, Oregon and Washington depts. of transportation, cause they are still have
state operated toll systems.

[Recursion]

83. No, I said I didn't know of any that don't

If the West Coast had made it work, awesome. I like that.

[Blue_Tires]

105. +1

[Jesus Malverde]

7. Bump...nt

[Beartracks]

9. Hey, I know - let's fart off any job creation and tax our way to prosperity!! n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

139. and tax from a declining number of employed people, at that.

You can shear a sheep many times, but you can skin him only once.

[DJ13]

10. Is it Constitutional to base Freedom of Movement on ability to pay on Federally funded highways?

I know states do it all the time, but they dont have the same constraints of Constitutionality as the Federal government.

[JoeyT]

34. They'll just claim movement isn't restricted,

because you can always drive from Atlanta to Los Angeles through five million small towns with 30 mph speed limits and cops that hate anyone that isn't from there.

[WillyT]

11. Yep... We're The Neo-Republicans Now...

They've moved so right... we had to fill the vacuum.

[markpkessinger]

12. Awaiting with bated breath the coming avalanche of rationalizations n/t

[LeftyMom]

14. Sounds like another way to track people's movements, more than anything.

[NBachers]

28. That was my first thought.

[woo me with science]

31. +1 They will be used as Homeland Security checkpoints.

I remember reading about this some time ago. This will limit and track movements of citizens, as well as lining the pockets of billionaires.

But we have a propaganda machine to tell us the government is still on our side, and everything's okay in the old USA.

[KittyWampus]

58. talk about woo- tolls are going to be used to track us AND as HS checkpoints. LOL

BTW- according to so many DU'ers… I thought the NSA already WAS tracking us.

[woo me with science]

62. Don't forget the reassuring map.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023164458

[LanternWaste]

109. We have more than our fair share of prophets wearing sandwich boards...

We have more than our fair share of prophets wearing sandwich boards who, ironically enough, tell us to beware of prophets wearing sandwich boards...

[KansDem]

103. Yeah! That'll mean jobs for the Bundy crowd!

They seem particularly adept and restricting travel on public roads.

[LAGC]

44. Exactly!

If funding is really the issue, why not just raise the Federal gas tax a few pennies?

There is absolutely no need for this invasive checkpoint bullshit.

Freedom to travel unmolested is one of the last hallmarks of a free society.

You expect this type of shit in fucking Russia, not the "land of the free."

[dixiegrrrrl]

90. Yep.

I was in San Francisco when EZ pass was rolled out, whereby you have an RFD sticker on your car that sets off a camera when you pass the tollbooth, and at the end of the month you get a bill in the mail.
Which of course means your car is tracked over the toll bridges, and tracked via street cameras in SF.

So you have to produce ID of some sort when you fly, when you drive, ( and you do this by debit card when you buy gas)
and apparently for trains and buses too, I hear.

the EZ passes have worked so well that there is talk of removing the acutal toll collectors now, making it all automatic.

"As California goes, so goes the nation" is indeed a truism.

[LeftyMom]

91. They already did remove the toll collectors on the Golden Gate.

Which is stupid because tourists. So now they have to pull over, get some temporary electronic dealie, and then go over the bridge. Which sounds like a gigantic pain in the ass compared to handing somebody in a booth a fiver, but the somebody was union and the electronic pass thing is contracted out to god knows where.

A while back my dad got a bill in the mail for a toll violation in Orange County. Small problem: the car the bill was for burned up in a fire years ago, and I don't think my Dad has driven through Orange County since he took us to Disneyland for my tenth birthday. It's ten hours drive away, and he's a senior citizen.

So I called and 45 minutes on the phone later somebody actually looked at the picture and admitted to me that it was a blurry photo and somebody must have just guessed at the plate number they saw, and yeah, the charred remains of my dad's old black sedan didn't magically become a red station wagon on the other end of the state. If he'd just ignored that obviously wrong bill from someplace he hasn't been in decades they'd have suspended his license because some dimwit misread a blurry photo.

So I'm really impressed with the labor saving aspect of electronic tolls.

[Recursion]

16. WTF? Why are Democrats now against this? It's a way to make driving more expensive

That's why we want a gas tax too. For that matter this is just a carbon tax for infrastructure by another name.

[cherokeeprogressive]

17. You mean a way to make EVERYTHING more expensive, right?

Seein' as how everything gets shipped.

Oh well... won't hurt those with money to spare.

[Recursion]

18. A carbon tax has been the holy grail of liberal revenue policy for a generation now

Howard Dean said it's how we should pay for universal single payer. What changed?

[rhett o rick]

23. A carbon tax on the big corporations is not the same as a tax on the lower classes. The Republicans

will love this tax.

[Recursion]

26. Of course it is. Making people pay for road/carbon use is a VAT, pure and simple

This proposal lets states set their own VAT rates and targeting, effectively, which sounds like it would have some pluses and minuses.

How do you propose a consumption tax that (which is what any carbon/road tax is) that doesn't make poor people pay more for things (remember, if you charge it to "corporations" without price controls, you're raising prices for consumer goods).

This pays for infrastructure work in a way that nudges people away from cars. It's literally exactly what we have been wanting for a long time; the only downside here is that it will be state-by-state, so Mississippi (for example) just won't do it and will still have crappy infrastructure.

[rhett o rick]

27. This is like the sales tax. It hurts the lower classes. But the conservatives among us

love it. The hell with the lower classes.

[Recursion]

38. You should change your avatar: Warren supports a carbon tax, too

And she represents a state that already charges tolls on Interstates, for that matter.

[rhett o rick]

76. Unlike some here, I dont worship candidates. Besides charging the poor to drive

isnt my idea of "the carbon tax".

[4Q2u2]

108. Mass Pike not a State or Fed Funded road

The Turnpike authority was established as a Quasi Public entity and sold bonds to finance the construction of the road. That is why it has been a toll road all along. To recoupe and repay investors for the intial bond outlay. In it's Charter the tolls were to come down and the road be free of charge after all the bonds were paid off. Just before that happened, they floated new bonds to secure as part of the Big Dig and keep the Authority alive for many years to come.

This is also a George Bush era idea, he change DOT and FHWA doctrine to make it very easy.
This also ensures that these toll roads built by private entities will subvert Union Contruction Trades and if they are run by a Private entity Safety becomes an economic factor in road service and not a social one.




http://cdn.publicinterestnetwork.org/assets/H5Ql0NcoPVeVJwymwlURRw/Private-Roads-Public-Costs.pdf

[newblewtoo]

112. Thank you for the link

bookmarked for later read. There is more than a little skullduggery in all this toll madness. Who runs the EZ pass system? Anyone know? Talk about life in the fast lane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ZPass

[Spider Jerusalem]

37. It's a sensible thing to do, really.

It effectively increases the cost of driving and makes people drive less and buy more efficient cars that use less fuel to offset tolls. Which makes it effectively a backdoor gasoline tax, which is something the USA has needed for a very long time, both to fund infrastructure and to drive fuel economy; fuel prices in the US are absurdly low compared to other developed countries which tax gasoline and diesel much higher.

[rhett o rick]

21. This tax will hurt the poor the most. But I guess that's the idea, right? nm

[Recursion]

24. Just to be clear: the carbon tax advocated by Howard Dean and Al Gore is now a bad idea?

The world goes crazy...

[rhett o rick]

25. But you support this tax on the lower classes. Isnt that your point here? nm

[Recursion]

36. Any VAT hits the poor and middle class

That's why Europe's overall tax system is more regressive than ours, for instance: they have a pretty hefty VAT. It's how they pay for things like universal health care.

[rhett o rick]

72. Are you supporting this tax on the lower classes vs. taxing the wealthy? nm

[Recursion]

73. I'd like to do both

Tax wealth and car driving.

[rhett o rick]

75. We live in a society where the poor and seniors have to drive. They have no choices.

Public transportation is appalling. Tax the wealthy and build public transportation, then I will go along with taxing driving.

[Puzzledtraveller]

48. Hey, it's all good as long as we win.

Get with the program, principals are so passe'.

[rhett o rick]

74. Seems so. nm

[jberryhill]

106. The poor do the most highway miles?

[rhett o rick]

125. The 99% would be taxed the most. The poor would be hurt the hardest

because it would be just another tax.

[jberryhill]

129. I don't know what you means by "would be"

Since every interstate around where I live has tolls out the wazoo.

I95 in Delaware has tolls at both ends, and there are three more in Maryland before you get to Baltimore. I don't know what definition of "poor" we are using here, or where they are parking those cars in any of the cities along that corridor for free in the first place. How long a commute are we talking about? Because anyone can avoid the tolls by getting off, skipping an exit, and getting on at the next one.

[Ikonoklast]

132. The price of food will rise if states are allowed to toll interstate traffic. Big time.

Tolls will not be absorbed by the carriers, those costs of those tolls will get passed onto the end user or consumer.


The poorest will take the biggest hit.



Their are many reasons why food is expensive in the NE of this nation, tolls on commercial traffic are really punitive already.


Now toll every current interstate road from California to the eastern seaboard, see food prices skyrocket.

[Skip Intro]

19. .

[msongs]

20. thanks obama nt

[blackspade]

22. WTF is this shit?

I saw this on the news earlier.
How about using federal tax money to fucking upkeep infrastructure?
That's why I pay taxes for fuck sake.

[woo me with science]

40. The country is being deliberately transformed into something else

that is decidedly not good for citizens.

Way past time to stop being shocked and to shed any illusions that this White House works for us.

[Recursion]

45. Err... that's what this is

It's a usage tax on roads to pay for infrastructure; it's a simpler version of the gas tax that basically the entire Progressive Caucus supports.

[blackspade]

53. No it is not.

This is another way for the 1% to pull even more money out of the pockets of the working and middles classes.
And this is definitely not a 'simpler' version of a gas tax. It's a backdoor tax that lands the most heavily on the poor. The 'simpler' was would be to raise the gas tax.

The fact is, we already pay taxes for the usage and upkeep of infrastructure. It is the government that doesn't spend the money as it should, rather diverting it to other priorities of the 1%.

[Recursion]

55. So, what is your imaginary "gas tax" that doesn't land heavily on the poor?

[blackspade]

98. Regressive taxes always land heavily on the poor.

A progressive tax structure that hits the upper classes is the way to go.

[MohRokTah]

56. So how do you get that passed in this Congress?

Obama is doing all he can via Executive Order. The Republicans refuse to fund any money into the infrastructure.

[blackspade]

99. It's already passed.

It's called a gas tax.

[MohRokTah]

101. There's calls to increase the gas tax.

The current level of revenues are nowhere near enough to fund what is needed.

How do you propose gaining more gasoline tax revenues in order to have enough money to fund the needed infrastructure projects.

[DeSwiss]

30. Another ''don't look backwards'' policy initiative, eh?

- So if you never look back, how the hell do you know whether or not you're going in the direction you need to be going, if you IGNORE where you've been?

K&R

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” ~George Orwell, 1984

[Ed Suspicious]

32. And surely we'll borrow some money from some megabank in exchange for a contract for the rights

of the bank to operate the tolls while collecting all revenue for the next 100 years. it's the Chicago parking meters all over again.


PRIVATIZE!!!!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

39. "We don't want the rif-raff whose jobs we've shipped abroad to drive their hoopties...

...on our commerce corridors anymore. Put up some toll gates." - The Oligarchy

Also, you're seeing how TPTB are going to handle the impending decline in crude oil, which has seen a virtual plateau in production for the past 8 years.

[Ichingcarpenter]

43. And so it goes

I’m hungry, mummy, can I have some hope, please?’

’I’m so sorry, darling, you can’t have hope today, only tomorrow – hope is always tomorrow.’

‘So will I eat tomorrow, mum?’

‘We can hope so now, dear, but when we get to tomorrow, we can only hope it’s the next day.’

[defacto7]

46. Let the coronation begin.

Considering our present course, I wonder who will finally be crowned Emperor of America? The race is on, and the highways will be rife with gold... or blood.

[MadrasT]

50. Welcome to my world.

I live in PA and already pay $500 a month in tolls, just to get to work and back.

[dixiegrrrrl]

87. Ouch!

I am curious tho...are tolls deductible?

[liberal N proud]

51. Does that mean that we will not have to pay gas taxes anymore?

Gas taxes are supposed to pay for roads and bridges, so if we have to pay tolls, isn't that double taxation?

[ellenfl]

54. it would be a disaster here (fl). take cars off i-95 and the minor roads

would be more of a parking lot than they already are.

eom

[nationalize the fed]

59. Trillions spent 8000 miles away

but revenue is needed for roadway repairs

Take a look at these numbers

http://nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/

Could it be any more clear?

[KoKo]

78. Roads,Bridges, Schools and Hosptials in Iraq & Afghanistan that got blown up...

But, no money for our own citizen's needs.

Thanks for that link...nice to know they are nominated for Peace Prize...

[jwirr]

64. This allows the states to fix road. It is another way around the obstructionists in congress. They

absolutely refuse to support a transportation bill.

[bobduca]

71. A really bad, regressive way to fund road maintanance.

Like a flat tax, a toll road affects the lower income workers disproportionately.

[randome]

86. Collapsing bridges affect lower income workers, too.

I'd rather we didn't have any toll roads but with the GOP obstructing in the House, how could the infrastructure be fixed?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[jwirr]

107. Yes, I agree but I can also see that it is either let the states use this method or nothing because

that is what congress is going to give us.

In our rural states this will not work at all as there just is not enough traffic to pay for the roads. Our great grand children would still be paying it off.

[karynnj]

65. The flaw with the "you already paid for them" argument is that they have yearly maintance

You could argue that tolls are a user fee and the users support the ongoing costs of those roads and build reserves for additions. This also allows collection of higher tolls on big trucks that are rougher on the highways (assuming they are). It also provides a means to encourage public transportation into crowded major cities. (In England, it is very expensive to enter London especially during the most heavily used times.) Where this is NOT the case are examples where the tolls go to the general treasury and are used for something else that is unrelated.

In some states with budget problems, some highways are currently "run" by private companies - I would far prefer they remain the property of the government with the government collecting tolls.

[whistler162]

131. Come on... I buy a house and I don't have to

replace the roof every few years or do any maintenance on it. Don't you know it fixes itself automagically!

[L0oniX]

67. Always looking out for the common US citizen.

[AzDar]

69. Jesus.

[whatchamacallit]

79. Change

you can believe in buy.

[ecstatic]

81. Sounds a little dangerous

That's the last thing someone would expect to see while flying down I-20 at 85+mph at 2am. Just divert the war dollars and foreign aide to the highways. Problem solved.

[wercal]

84. This is unusual to me...

Because we currently have tolled interstates in Kansas. As far as I know, they have been tolled since they were built in the 1950's. (I-335, Part of I-35, and Part of I-70).

Pros: Roads are in very good condition, and recently lanes were added - all paid by tolls.

Cons: Part of the interstate loop that goes around Topeka is a tolled road. In my opinion, over the years it has economically damaged that part of town. People don't want to get up on the toll road for a few miles, and then pay 50 cents to get off of it. So, when the new mall was built....it didn't go next to the toll road, new movie theater...same, new mega home improvement store, new apartments, new residential subdivisions - you name it, and they mostly go in on the other side of town. There are other factors, but I believe the toll interstate is one of them.

Personally, I live a thousand feet from this toll road (Kansas Turnpike). If I could hop on it to get to work, my 22 minute drive would be cut in half. There are thousands of people in the same situation. But we can't hop on, because there is no entrance. The turnpike authority has done several studies, but can't economically justify building the toll booths to give me and entrance. Now this is an interstate highway...so close to me that I hear it at night...but I have to travel 25 miles in either direction to use it. Its a big downside.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

88. Will the charges be progressive? i.e. $1 for the poor $100 for the rich?

If the money is needed, as they say, to raise revenues for road repair, why not just raise the income tax? At least, income tax, is (allegedly) progressive.

[truebrit71]

97. I believe you have that precisely backwards...now do pass me the Grey Poupon would you?

[betterdemsonly]

94. This is one of many reasons I have had it with neoliberal dems?

This is regressive and unfair. Getting around is bad enough if your don't have much money, and this makes it much worse.

[Xyzse]

113. From the looks of it the Whitehouse really wants to lose 2014.

It is so hard as is to get Democratic votes on off election years, and this comes along.

[Laelth]

115. It looks that way to me. It's both puzzling and infuriating. n/t

-Laelth

[Xyzse]

117. Then again, I guess I felt the same way around 2010.

It makes it hard to justify being able to promote candidates for the House and Senate.

Still going to help out, but it really does make the job harder.

[Laelth]

119. My home state of Georgia is on the verge of turning blue.

We have an excellent gubernatorial candidate in Jason Carter. We have an excellent Senate candidate in Michelle Nunn. The state's demographics are trending blue. The Democratic Party of Georgia is rising from the ashes of its meager existence over the past thirty years ... and now THIS?

It will crush us.

-Laelth

[Xyzse]

122. I live in MD, help in VA...

I know they have toll ways, and everybody I know hates it and avoids it, even if they do have an EZ Pass.
A buck or more each time you pass adds up real quick.

[pa28]

120. Obama spoke of his desire for "public private partnerships" in his second term.

Most of us just call it "privatization" for short and we're seeing it.

In schools, now our highways and in the military and NSA. I guess you begin so see things that way when your administration is packed to the rafters with lobbyists.

[cantbeserious]

126. Less Hope And Change - More Begger My Neighbor

eom

[B Calm]

137. Obama turning into a libertarian?