[scan59]

These are tolls on existing roads, already paid for with taxpayer money. It is happening in the Dallas area as well.

[Deek]

Over the life of a road, most of the cost of that road is in the form of operating and maintenance expenses. No road is "already paid for". Roads that are open today will cost millions of dollars a year (in someone's money) to maintain.

The problem we have is that Texas is a gas-tax "Donor State". We are paying for everyone else's roads. This is what we should be protesting!

In my opinion, Tolls are the fairest of all forms of taxation. You only pay for it if you use it. If you don't use it, you don't pay. Not to mention you aren't demanding some other poor state pay for your road.

We need the roads in Austin. Until something better comes along, tolls look good to me. At least I know that all of the money I pay will be used to build roads in my area.

[af_vet_rr]

These are tolls on existing roads, already paid for with taxpayer money. It is happening in the Dallas area as well.

I hate to brake it to you (pun intended) but this is going to happen all over the state. I've heard rumblings in Houston about it as well. Kerry, I mean Perry, is a big fan of toll roads. A very big fan, and the people he appointed are very toll road-oriented.

It doesn't matter to them that it is in effect a double tax - once when you originally paid for the road, twice to later on drive on it.

It's the way things are, the only way you can really stop it is to force the people behind it out, and get people in who would put the brakes on. That means starting at the top with Perry, and working your way down to those with regional influences (such as elected officials that are on regional committees/task forces).

[DallasMike]

These are tolls on existing roads, already paid for with taxpayer money. It is happening in the Dallas area as well.

Yes, it is. They're trying to toll portions of the currently free State Highway 121 and people around here aren't too happy about it.

Voters approved construction of the Dallas North Tollway in the early 1960s under the condition that it would become free when paid for. The original tollway was paid for years ago yet we continue to be charged to drive on it. Grrr!!!