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While a completely use-based system might be more fair, it is really completely unmanageable. Tracking the use of small neighborhood streets, rural roads, and the like is simply impractical.
If only there was some sort of way to pay based on how much you drive. Perhaps a way where those who drive fuel efficient vehicles wouldn't have to pay as much. But alas, I cannot think of any way this could possibly be done.
If only there was some sort of way to pay based on how much you drive. Perhaps a way where those who drive fuel efficient vehicles wouldn't have to pay as much. But alas, I cannot think of any way this could possibly be done.
This toll idea is exactly like the lottery, pointless. We shouldn't allow toll booths to be constructed on any road in NC. Everyone I have questioned on using a toll road have refused to take I540 if this is allowed. You can just as easily take I440 and save your money.
We have the funding, I have seen the numbers for myself. Tell your fat government officials to stop spending your money on useless things. The legislature has taken huge chunks of highway money to cover their butts.
I540 could be constructed by the end of 2010. The funding is here. No one wants to volunteer the funds, but they are there. The federal money could be there by next year if we brought the troops home. $1trillion dollars on someone elses problem, but we can't put in a major interstate.
This toll idea is exactly like the lottery, pointless. We shouldn't allow toll booths to be constructed on any road in NC. Everyone I have questioned on using a toll road have refused to take I540 if this is allowed. You can just as easily take I440 and save your money.
We have the funding, I have seen the numbers for myself. Tell your fat government officials to stop spending your money on useless things. The legislature has taken huge chunks of highway money to cover their butts.
I540 could be constructed by the end of 2010. The funding is here. No one wants to volunteer the funds, but they are there. The federal money could be there by next year if we brought the troops home. $1trillion dollars on someone elses problem, but we can't put in a major interstate.
Care to share those numbers with us? I know that state money has been diverted from the highway trust fund to the general fund to fill a funding gap, but where's the waste in the general fund? What spending could have been eliminated in the general fund to make up the $800,000,000 needed to complete the western portion of the outer loop?
And how is the lottery pointless? Since March 2006, it has provided $375,000,000 in funding earmarked for initiatives such as class-size reduction, preschool programs, school construction and college scholarships for needy students. I think it's better that this money stay in NC instead of ending up in the pockets of Virginia. Before the Education Lottery, 10% of Virginia lottery tickets were sold to North Carolinians.
Care to share those numbers with us? I know that state money has been diverted from the highway trust fund to the general fund to fill a funding gap, but where's the waste in the general fund? What spending could have been eliminated in the general fund to make up the $800,000,000 needed to complete the western portion of the outer loop?
These are the kinds of questions that need to be answered. There needs to be more oversight, but of course that will just cost more money. I have no issues paying taxes, but our state gov't reminds me of a college kid asking dad for $100 to buy books. The following week he asks again for $100 to buy books. What is the first thing dad says? "What did you do with the $100 I gave you last week?". This is what we need to be asking our elected officials. What did you do with the $100 I gave you last week? And don't give me any political sales & marketing bs double talk. I want to see real numbers.
Yeah, but "they" also know where you've been and when you went there. I know that makes me sound like a paranoid freak--seriously, I'm not. I'm mild mannered and even tempered and pay my taxes on time. But I also think warrantless wiretapping is an invasion of privacy (and I have nothing to hide!)
I'm just your average, run-of-the-mill privacy advocate.
dcgrl thanks I understand now. However we are becoming a cashless society so everytime you swipe that credit card, customer appreciation card, and drive/walk by all the cameras watching us each day they know where we have been and when we were there anyway. the EZPass just helps them fill in the route!
These are the kinds of questions that need to be answered. There needs to be more oversight, but of course that will just cost more money. I have no issues paying taxes, but our state gov't reminds me of a college kid asking dad for $100 to buy books. The following week he asks again for $100 to buy books. What is the first thing dad says? "What did you do with the $100 I gave you last week?". This is what we need to be asking our elected officials. What did you do with the $100 I gave you last week? And don't give me any political sales & marketing bs double talk. I want to see real numbers.
The numbers are available (here for example: http://www.osbm.state.nc.us/files/pd...djustments.pdf), but who wants to spend their free time combing through budget numbers? I suspect that the spending is justified, but the state needs to do a better job describing where all the money goes (perhaps summarized in a yearly pamphlet that gets mailed to everyone). By a large margin, the majority of the budget is spent on education, health/human services, and public safety.
I also suspect that the tax revenue is not large enough to cover the justified expenses, but instead of trying to raise taxes (and take political potshots from Republicans), they raid the highway trust fund instead. So I blame the Republicans in the state house for making it necessary to raid the highway trust fund, and I blame the Democrats for not having a backbone to raise taxes.
I miss the Republican party of old that stood for small, less-intrusive government and fiscal responsibility. Lately, they seem to only stand for lower taxes at all costs (if that bankrupts the state, so be it). They never seem to mention reducing spending....only reducing taxes. At the very least, I wish they were acting as a fiscal watchdog. But they only seem to mention spending issues if it's going to be politically embarrassing for Democrats, and usually those issues are only in the thousands of dollars...nowhere near the amount of money that could help fund the $800M outer loop. Come on Republicans! Do your job and show us a fiscally conservative budget with no wasteful spending. Don't just keep rattling off political talking points like "gas taxes are too high" and "government spending is wasteful" without backing up those claims. We're not idiots.
Here's my take on it. Roads should only be funded by gas taxes, and gas taxes should only fund roads. It's simple and fair. Want better roads? Then gas taxes will have to increase. Want lower gas taxes? Then you're going to have to deal with bad roads.
The cashless toll system can also be used to monitor vehicle speed-put two transmitters exactly 1 mile apart and the elapsed time between the 2 points can easily be used to determine how fast that car covered the one mile.
The problem is that the government can always say they need more money for something even if we have been paying for it based on their budget....and they dont ask, they take.
I am sure the next thing that will be said is "the tolls will only be there until the road is paid for".
I hear "we dont care how it was done up north"
seems like they are starting to screw up plenty just like up north...
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We have the funding, it never went anywhere
