Media

By The Oklahoman

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee, chaired by Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, is considering an expansion of an interstate tolling pilot program that opens the door to troubling revenue collection schemes and economic manipulation. This would clearly violate the spirit of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, if not the law itself, and could lead to border tolls of $10, $50, $100 or more.

Source: KOMU 8 News Missouri

BOONE COUNTY - Local drivers seem to agree: Missouri highways need help.

KOMU 8 News surveyed more than 100 people for its May edition of Town Square, a special project that lets the viewers drive the conversation, and found many of our viewers think something needs to be done about aging infrastructure in Missouri. Its how to fund those improvements that has them divided.

There are two options currently on the table: converting I-70 into a toll road and raising the gas tax.

Source: The Virginian-Pilot

Tolls, tunnel closures and related road construction projects are hurting Portsmouth badly, according to the latest study on the impact of the Downtown and Midtown tunnel tolls.

Perhaps the most significant finding is an estimate showing the city is missing out on $24 million in taxable revenue a year.

"The danger for Portsmouth is what that number is likely to increase to in the future if businesses go out of business," said James Koch, the Old Dominion University economist who did the $18,000 study for the city.

By NBC12 WWBT Richmond

There's a new push to charge tolls on Virginia's free interstates, and it's coming straight from the White House. Federal funding for Virginia highways is set to expire at the end of May.

Part of President Barack Obama's solution is to open all of Virginia's interstates to tolls.

By FleetOwner

New highway miles paid for with tolls have far outpaced the overall growth of the U.S. road system, according to a recent analysis by Brookings.

In 2013, tolls covered some 5,400 miles of roadways nationally, up 15.1% over 10 years, the report says. That’s compared to a 3.6% growth in total system mileage.

The proliferation of tolls on Interstates is even greater: up 17% compared to a 2% increase in the mileage overall.

By Land Line Magazine

The White House’s proposed highway bill, the $478 billion GROW AMERICA Act, contains numerous funding options for highways, bridges, transit and transportation programs, but what stands out for truckers?

Perhaps the most talked-about provision as of press time is one that would allow states more latitude to place tolls on interstate highways and bridges by lifting the current moratorium on tolling federally funded highways.

By Commercial Carrier Journal

President Barack Obama’s proposed highway bill — which came to Congress this week via Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx — seemed to cause little drama, as the bill’s length and size were mostly in line with other measures floated.

Its key trucking reform was to require carriers to pay drivers at least minimum wage for on-duty time not spent driving, and its funding source (a repatriation tax on foreign earnings) has backers on both sides of the political aisle, though likely not enough to get the bill through Congress.

By Overdrive Magazine

President Barack Obama’s proposed highway bill — which came to Congress this week via Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx — seemed to cause little drama, as the bill’s length and size were mostly in line with other measures floated in the recent past by the administration.

By The Daily Caller

A little-noted provision of President Obama’s highway funding proposal would lift the federal prohibition against states imposing new tolls on existing interstate highways.

The GROW AMERICA Act would eliminate restrictions held in place since the creation of the Federal Interstate System, according to a summary of the plan’s provisions, allowing states that receive permission from the Secretary of Transportation to toll existing Interstate highways “in order to make improvements or to manage congestion.”

In response to a proposed plan to toll existing interstates, an organization known as the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, which describes itself as “a coalition of individuals, businesses and organizations working to maintain the longstanding policy of protecting existing interstates from new tolls” has come down quite forcibly against the concept.

In a statement from Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates spokesman Julian Walker, in response to the re-release of the GROW AMERICA plan by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the group noted: