Associations condemn highway act's tolls

WASHINGTON (April 2, 2015) — Associations representing highway construction contractors and highway users are condemning the provisions for increased tolls on interstate highways in the Obama administration's six-year, $478 billion infrastructure funding package.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx transmitted the Generating Renewal, Opportunity and Work with Accelerated Mobility, Efficiency and Rebuilding of Infrastructure and Communities throughout America (GROW AMERICA) Act to Congress March 30.

The legislation's best-publicized feature is its 14-percent transition tax on untaxed foreign earnings of U.S. corporations to provide revenue to the Highway Trust Fund.

However, the bill also would lift bans on tolls for existing interstate highways. The Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates (ATFI) and the National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO), among others, find this unacceptable.

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“The recycled plan to lift the ban on tolling existing interstates has aged horribly in the year since it was first offered,” said ATFI spokesman Julian Walker. “Tolling interstate lanes which drivers now freely access is an inefficient financing mechanism that is the worst possible approach to raising transportation revenue.”

NATSO President and CEO Lisa Mullings called it “disappointing and irresponsible” for the Obama administration to propose allowing tolls on existing interstates.

“Tolls jeopardize public safety as traffic moves onto less safe secondary roads,” Ms. Mullings said. “The traveling public detests tolls on existing interstates, rejecting them in every state that has attempted to implement them.”

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