Give Us More Tolls
I continue to be amazed that elected officials in the Fox River Valley want their constituents to be forced to pay more tolls to get to and from work.
How else can one explain why they would now be begging to allow their constituents to pay double for a new bridge across the Fox River.
First, Algonquin. Then, Huntley. Now West Dundee.
If I were a prospective candidate for village office, I would be out gathering petition signatures all summer against this effort to turn the northern Kane County Bolz Road Bridge into a toll bridge.
Other parts of the Illinois are smart enough to get their legislators to provide the money to build needed bridges.
In our part of Illinois, we obviously aren’t.
Governor Rod Blagojevich even intervened to stop talk of a toll bridge across the Mississippi in the St. Louis area.
Motorists will pay the toll when they cross the proposed Northern Kane County bridge, but they will pay a second time every time they fill up their gas tanks.
It’s called Motor Fuel Tax.
More this weekend at McHenry County Blog, including a John Kass-inspired, Bill Cellini friend's connection to Crystal Lake's Vulcan Lakes-Route 14 $120 million Tax Increment Financing District.
4 comments:
Cal -
I applaud the local officials for trying to find a way to ease traffic congestion in their municipalities. They are being proactive in finding new ways to resolve problems in their towns.
More power to them!
What is the funding source for the bridge? If there is ANY public money involved, then the bridge ought to be free. If all of the money is private, then by all means have a toll bridge.
The beauty of the ISTHA is that those who use are paying for it.
The MFT is a federal and state tax to pay for public roads state wide.
I am going to get the percentagges wrong, but they will be close enough for the illustration.
About half of the state MFT goes to local roadway agencies such as municipalities, counties and rural townships. The municipalities get their money based on population. Counties & rural townships get their money based on lane miles.
About half of the MFT money that is left goes to IDOT District 1 which is Cook county and the 6 collar counties. The remaining 25% or so goes to the other 8 IDOT districts.
Funding for the vast majority of IDOT construction projects is an 80/20 federal/state match. There are a few projects which are a 90/10 match. These are typically interstate projects.
Motor fuels tax not only does not even begin to cover externalities from car use such as wasteful use of land and air pollution, it no longer even covers the cost of road construction. We're at a watershed moment, we're at the point where if we want something we've got to pay for it. Fancy that.
Tolls on new bridges are a good start, but until we have road pricing or an increased gas tax, along with tolls on all interstates, we won't even begin to reflect the reality of the cost of cars. And I mean real tolls, not the 2.8 cents per mile of the Illinois tollway, which is less than a fifth of what the tollway cost when it opened in 1958 despite the massive upgrade now taking place.
DB-
For what it's worth, public transit has not covered its costs from the farebox since the 1920's, and the recurring funding problems of RTA indicate we'll have to pony up even more to keep it afloat.
I agree tolls are a good solution to solving capacity problems, especially when there are alternate "free" routes available for those who choose not to pay the toll.
It's all about choices.
"public transit has not covered its costs from the farebox since the 1920's"
Perhaps Harold Ickes should have thought twice when he and FDR decided to confiscate the L from Sam Insull.
Insull was able to make a profit with the L until its confiscation.
JBP
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