Should Iowa consider toll roads for highway construction, maintenance?
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Raising motor fuel taxes is not the only means of funding Iowa’s critical transportation needs, but the alternatives – bonding, tolling and sales taxes, for example – come with their own shortcomings, the state’s transportation chief told lawmakers Monday.
Department of Transportation Director Paul Trombino III didn’t rule out pursuing some combination of motor fuel taxes and alternative funding sources.
Tolls are sometimes advocated as a way to capture revenue from through traffic, However Trombino warned Iowa’s grid system of roads that allow fluid north-south, east-west movement would make it easy for motorists to avoid the toll ways. “You would have to create such a high price for the toll that it wouldn’t necessarily make revenue,” he said.
What do you think? Should Iowa consider toll roads as a way to raise revenue for state highway construction and maintenance?
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Gas prices up,tax’s up,food prices up,health insurance up,etc.,etc.,now toll roads! Wont be long and no one will be able to afford to use the roads to go anywhere!
No private company can do anything cheaper than the government. The Governor proved that to Iowa years ago when he turned the highway rest stops over to a private company and it ended up costing the taxpayers more. The roads belong to the people and they should not have to pay a private company to use them.
Please, let’s just get on with it and simply raise the state gas tax to fix our roads and then build any new roads we urgently need.