Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/305892
Voices 14 | Overdrive | May 2014 Late March news reports indicated a slight major- ity of the general public in favor of the Afford- able Care Act, with support growing since January. The support of Overdrive readers, skeptical of the program from the beginning, has shown little change. Among those whose thought was in flux was Danny Murdock, who commented: "Overall, I am saving big time, plus I can get care as needed, not when desperate." Hot Buttons OverdriveOnline.com poll No, I still view it negatively No, I still think it's a good thing No, I'm still neutral Yes, I now view it negatively Yes, I now think it's a good thing Yes, I'm now neutral HAS YOUR VIEW OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT CHANGED SINCE ITS IMPLEMENTATION LAST FALL? 73% 10% 2% 7% 7% 1% OBAMA CARE OBAMA CARE Readers still down on health care program Toll talk roils road funding discussion Will we soon add another state to the list of those that have tried, but ultimately failed, to toll an existing interstate? Longtime readers will remember the old fight over Pennsylvania's plans to toll I-80 under a federal pilot program dating back to the 1990s. Pennsylvania's plans were scuttled due to, among other things, a view of tolls as a general-fund sort of cash influx for the state instead of being limited to highway applications. The same objection could have implications for the current toll talk ongoing in states from Wisconsin to South Carolina and elsewhere. The federal pilot funding program, however, requires all revenue to go toward road maintenance and upkeep. Pennsylvania's application has been denied three times, and recent public opposition in two of the three states (Virginia and North Carolina) that eventually became part of the tolling pilot program "forced the governors of both states to abandon the projects," wrote Hayes Framme in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "Tolls remain the least efficient and least effective way to generate revenue for roads," wrote Framme, a spokes- person for the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates. "Consid- er that even with advances in electronic tolling, the cost of operating and maintaining toll facilities can consume as much as 20 percent of the money generated, accord- ing to a Washington State Department of Transporta- tion study. This inefficiency comes into sharp focus when contrasted with the cost of administering the gas tax (1 percent of revenue generated) or the federal income tax (0.4 percent of revenue generated)." There's also the "philosophical roadblock," as he put it: "Tolls on existing federal interstate lanes is double taxation." Sound familiar? As trucking interests fought interstate-highway privatization during 2006 to 2008, many of the battles were lost. Today, however, it feels like we're on more solid footing with not only a wider segment of industry opinion but also the general public, where new-tolls sentiment, as Framme noted, generally has trended dead-set against. Nonetheless, U.S. Senate bill 2051 seeks to encourage road pricing further, both as a way to fund new inter- state highways and to rehabilitate existing ones. The bill, introduced by Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, would remove limitations on toll use for new routes, and ex- pand the limit on state use of tolls to rehabilitate existing infrastructure from three to 10 pilot projects. Most of the trucking industry, as well as the general public, opposes new tolls. Voices_0514.indd 14 4/30/14 3:12 PM