Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
While I am generally admittedly a conservative, partisan voter I think rural legislators in Congress should go across party and ideological lines and team up to block new mass transit funding for the big cities unless we get our fair share of gas taxes for highway construction.
WV gets more in government funding than it pays in taxes, the issue is this funding only goes to a small part of the state. It is the urban areas that pay more than rural areas. Urban areas are also where people live. Your post is somewhat hypocritical and selfish.
Those tolls aren't going anywhere. If anything, they will increase. You can not take the feed out of the mouth of the Boss Hogg pork machine. Try it and lose a couple fingers.
I do have a big problem with this proposed toll increase even though it will not affect me personally. I live in rural Kanawha County north of Charleston and have never driven that stretch. It will only affect me once in a while when I travel to Beckley and points south like the New River. Maybe its cause I WAS affected by the toll hikes in Maryland which unfairly penalized my area and that was one of the battles I fought when I was in the tea party movement there, along with against illegal immigration and gun control. It really is unfair for Turnpike users in southern WV to subsidize statewide projects....in this case a small tax increase distributed evenly statewide would make more sense and be more fair. Now yes I am against gas taxes and fought against them in Maryland but I find them undesirable but acceptable in the context of West Virginia given that here in this state all of it is used on highways and none of it is used on mass transit while in Maryland about 40% of transportation funds go to mass transit which cannot pay for itself. So if we cannot get enough from the federal government to maintain our roads, and I realize these mountain roads cost more to maintain and build, then the state government may be left with no choice but to increase the gas tax. Also a tiny sales tax increase also makes sense as a sales tax is something that nobody can avoid, not even mass transit users who don't pay the gas tax or illegal aliens who don't pay any taxes at all.
If Obamacare can be defunded and repealed, and the state does not have to spend all the money expanding Medicaid to people who are above the poverty line, then more money can go to transportation. We should also pursue more business friendly policies such as reassessing the need for union in TODAY's world and trying to attract more businesses here to grow the tax base.
The idea of continuing to toll the WV Turnpike goes against the concept of trust in government and goes against honesty. The understanding is that once the highway is paid for, the tolls should end. That is how it should be. I know people from other states, in the South and West, where tolls were removed after the highway's construction costs were paid for. In this respect WV is doing the same as Maryland, where the facilities are already paid for but the legislature refuses to remove the tolls. There ARE arguments that out of staters are the majority of Turnpike traffic. If this is the case, then they should allow cars with WV license plates to use it for free. If they can't do that they at least should have a generous commuter plan that charges no more than 10 cents a crossing for people who use the highway regularly.
How come the Turnpike is tolled in the first place? There are no other toll roads in the entire state. Was the state not able to get federal funding for the Turnpike vs freeways like Interstate 77 from Charleston to Parkersburg or Interstate 79 up to Morgantown or Interstate 68 to Maryland? Not even the long bridges across the Ohio River are tolled. (in Maryland and points north any bridge that size would be tolled).
Also I don't think drivers should bear the total burden of highways because EVERYONE benefits from highways as a public good. Just look at how your food gets to the supermarket. I do see how tolls are more politically expedient than taxes since with tolls you get people in one area of the state to hate you while with taxes you get the whole state to hate you.
Also I don't think drivers should bear the total burden of highways because EVERYONE benefits from highways as a public good. Just look at how your food gets to the supermarket. I do see how tolls are more politically expedient than taxes since with tolls you get people in one area of the state to hate you while with taxes you get the whole state to hate you.
People who use the highway bare the burden. If you dont want to pay the toll dont use the highway.
Everyone benefits from the highways so everyone should contribute. And I still don't get how they can continue to toll a highway after its construction costs have already been paid off. For some reason while the tax burden in West Virginia is lower than Maryland, its still quite high for such a rural state.
Everyone benefits from the highways so everyone should contribute. And I still don't get how they can continue to toll a highway after its construction costs have already been paid off. For some reason while the tax burden in West Virginia is lower than Maryland, its still quite high for such a rural state.
The people that benefit are the people who use it. They pay for it. Toll roads are the model of fairness.
The people that benefit are the people who use it. They pay for it. Toll roads are the model of fairness.
But according to the new state government plan, the continued tolls collected on the WV Turnpike are not actually going to the Turnpike, they are going to be used on highways throughout the state. So if all the Turnpike tolls are used ONLY on the Turnpike then that might make more sense.
Also tolls were started to pay for the construction of the toll road. The Turnpike, just like many toll roads in the Northeast, has already been paid off so there should be no reason to continue tolls after the road it was instituted to pay for is already paid for. I think all the construction costs of the West Virginia Turnpike have already been met so there really is no reason to keep on tolling it. Tolls were added with the specific understanding that they would be removed once the road was paid for. now they are just having Turnpike drivers pay for other projects which was not the reason the tolls were started to begin with. The people of West Virginia were PROMISED by the state government that the tolls would end when construction costs were all paid for. This is where I see a parallel between West Virginia Democrats and Democrats in more liberal states. I also wonder your opinion on the use of gas taxes on public transportation.....yes there is no real mass transit in WV aside from the Morgantown PRT which is funded by WVU, but you never know what the future holds. I'm not riled up about buses yet using the gas tax since we have limited bus lines in WV but I WILL be up in arms if they use my gas tax money on subways and commuter trains.
Don't you agree that EVERYONE in society benefits from the highways? I also wonder if the state government raids the transportation fund for other purposes? In Maryland a lot of money was taken out of the transportation trust fund to pay for illegal immigrants services and other liberal social programs that were the brainchild of the liberal Democrats there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
