Posted on 01/25/2018 11:06:29 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Quicksand?!
I have some ideas. No Toll Roads.
Stop spending highway money on bike paths, mass transit, parks, greenbelts, diverted to the general fund and other non-road activities. Then, get back to me about any shortfall.
If it is truly a real shortfall and not a fake one, I’d be willing to see an increase in the gas tax, but you have to prove to me the money you are now getting is not being wasted first.
There is not a major thoroughfare in the Houston area that is not a toll road. I have friends down there that pay a regular $200 to $300 bill every month for tolls. And that’s with the discounted auto-pass box.
I’m willing to bet the most expensive part of a road is the labor needed to build it. And yet we have tens of millions of able bodied males rotting in our prisons. Why cant we put them to work rebuilding our infrastructure? Why do we pay 10 union guys to stand around while one does the actual work?
Sell bonds to get the funds.
Pay the bonds off over time.
Who knew?
Where would we be today, if our grandparents had acted this way?
I’m so sick of incompetence.
What we collect in gas taxes would support the bonds.
Why do we need new roads? It isn’t solely due to roads being old. There are many more cars on the roads. And all those cars are being filled with gasoline that is taxed.
The better mileage argument fails, for that reason.
Our elected officials lie their asses off.
And can someone explain how cost supposedly went up 80% when wages have been flat for decades?
“Stop spending highway money on bike paths, mass transit, parks, greenbelts, diverted to the general fund and other non-road activities.
Amen!”
AMEN onto that Amen also!
Which is why I warn folks about toll roads, but even here we have folks who think they’re Great.
Austin budgets highway money for road construction. When the money runs out, construction stops until the next budgeting cycle.
11 years ago I moved to San Antonio from Jersey. Last year I went back to Jersey and I saw the same barriers and construction project going on which started before I left. To put it into perspective, I have seen a 1/2 dozen major road construction projects completed in San Antonio in the last 2 years.
That is factually incorrect.
45,59, Ih10, Highway 6, 290, 610, 288, LaPorte Freeway etc are not toll roads, they are traffic nightmares, but not Toll Roads.
Only the HTR, Parts of Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway are to my knowledge toll roads down here.
As usual, the Houston Chronicle is lying.
According to Texas Comptroller, in 2000 Texas collected 2688.2M$ in motor fuel taxes. In 2015, Texas collected 3,446.2M$. Those are different years than the article mentions, but still an increase of 28% over 15 years is not a decrease in absolute revenue. The article specifically states that the state is collecting less revenue - that is not the truth.
Make “prevailing wage” illegal and watch the cost of construction projects nosedive.
Here’s an idea.
No money for bike lanes, they have no skin in the game.
Some kind of tax for electric vehicles. No hard, propane powered have been paying it for 40 years.
No more extras on construction. I don’t need a Lone Star on every bridge.
Then raise gasoline and diesel .10 a gallon.
Then stop bitchin’
Got on a toll road in Austin a few months back. They mail you an invoice. It’s typically no more than a few bucks. I never got the bill so I forgot all about it. Then one day I got a bill for around $70. I called and was told it was late fees. Because I never saw a bill, typical Postal service, she gave me a $20 discount.
Westpark Tollway, also.
I45, US 59, I10 and US 290 aren’t toll roads. And where there are toll roads you can take the service roads for free. If course, that sucks.
Around here we usually pay it to illegal foreign aliens.
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