It's a way to let private company's help pay for badly needed, high dollar infrastructure.
Tennessee’s Department of Transportation (TDOT) said the state needs about $30 billion to build and maintain the state’s highways moving forward and the gas tax doesn't produce enough money to pay for it.
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This wouldn't affect me one bit. I rarely drive on roads with more than one lane in either direction anyway. I think I've been on a freeway twice this year.
I don't care for Billy Lee, but at least he's not raising the gas tax for the entire state to pay for some people to have a faster commute.
In Atlanta the did away with most HOV lanes leading in and out of the city and replaced them with toll lanes that have high tech cameras to catch toll offenders and people that cross the double solid white line. Somebody needs to be horse whipped over that.
ReplyDeleteNatural progression: The Yankee NJ Turnpike Highway Robbery road rot is spreading south...
ReplyDeleteMaybe if there wasn't so much "entitlement" shit, maintaining and building roads wouldn't be a problem....
ReplyDeleteSo stop providing taxpayer money to criminals who came here illegally and you’ll save that much and more!
ReplyDeleteI avoid the interstates like a plague getting on them when there is no other choice available. Of course I live out here in the sticks so its kind of easy for me to do.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't fall for it. In PA (the most expensive toll roads in the nation now), the Turnpike commission who runs them is bankrupt. They recently attempted to expand their tolls to busy bridges on major interstates that are not part of existing toll roads and it was shot down in court. I wouldn't fall for it. The money will be "claimed" for infrastructure but it'll get used elsewhere and five years from now they will still raise the gas tax in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteand once the money is rolling in from toll roads, the money that WAS dedicated to infrastructure gets spent elsewhere so the net improvement is nil....
ReplyDeleteLet'm pay for the fast lanes. Atlanta does.
ReplyDelete...and you end up with a bridge like we have here in Richmond, VA, I-895, that started out with a toll of about $2.00 or less, decided that wasn't enough, and each time they raised it, less used it, and they raised it again. The toll is now over $5.00 each way.
ReplyDeleteOregon is going to put tolls on I-5 and I-205 through Portland, to "reduce congestion".
ReplyDelete$2.00 each way for both of them.
If this had been in place when I had my work commute, it would have cost me around $2,000/year.
Another reason to be glad I'm retired.
The "private company" may be Saudi. This was attempted and tempting in Ala and Fla several years back. It didn't happen, it was a proposal. It gives whatever private entity all kinds of freedom to increase rates "as necessary", just as would happen anyway. As a side note; the taxes needed for infrastructure could come more fairly on the backs of tire purchases. Don't drive much? Don't need tires as often, you aren't the one wearing out the roads and won't have to pay for what you don't use. The EV's use roads and don't pay gas tax. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteMississloppigarro
how about a toll on the bike lane?? bout time those free loaders started paying like the rest of us. bicyclist act like they own the road, demand a separate lane for their exclusive use, and don't pay one red cent in road use taxes.
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