Lincolnite

I’ve liked this idea for a long time. As I’ve said before, I am a use-tax kind of guy. It could go to pay for the widening of the road to 6 lanes (3 each way) that is underway as we speak. I’d try to set it up like this: One toll gate just west of Lincoln, on between Lincoln and Omaha, and one at the far east edge of Omaha (would be hard to do). That way, tourists going thru are hit 3 times, but those that make the daily commute are just hit once.

I’d agree with everything Fletch said.

However, after living in the Denver area where they built E-470 as a “wrap around” road I’d ask this… how much is an appropriate MONTHLY toll?

In the case of E-470 in Denver it was easy to say “Hey, the road didn’t exist last year. How much is it worth to you to use it?” In this case, I-80 has existed for a long time. Most people who commute between Lincoln and Omaha never considered a day in the future when they might have to pay a toll to use I-80. How much should we expect those people to have to cough up each month to get to work?

$10 per onth?
$25 per month?

Additionally, it is easy to say “pay as you go”. (And I’d agree with that.) The reality is that the toll would be instituted, fees would be collected, then construction would start. The percieved result - “I am paying for the annoyance of construction in an ongoing basis for the next 15 years. Neat. I’m thrilled.” We understand that the repairs would need to have been made anyway, but I would not want to be the NDOT PR person spinning that one.

Do any states charge a toll to outsiders only? What if we said - our tax dollars pay for our road, Nebraska car tags are exempt. The other 49 states will have to pay a toll to pass through. The obvious reaction would be every single state implementing the same procedures, making it a royal pain in the tuchas to travel anywhere out of state. But the effect would be that non-residents pitch in to help build roads they are actually using, and an aftereffect may be less traffic on our roads from out of state.

The more I think about it the more I think we should just pay our taxes and let NDOT fix the roads with that. 😉

Link is dead by the way.

Echoing somewhat the above thoughts, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is PURPOSE and PLACEMENT. In places like DC it makes total sense because you’ve got a city that - as the nation’s capitol - you need to make look nice, but it doesn’t have the tax base to support the needed funding, and its surrounded by ultra rich suburbs whose residents only go into the city to work.

With an I-80 toll, what is the nexus of interest a commuter in Omaha would have to funding a Lincoln arena? If anything, you would think there interest would be in supporting the Qwest center. However, if the purpose of the toll was to fund something else, like wider infrastructure, that may make it more sensible to Terry and Omahans. After all, commuting Omahans do use our infrastructure. I doubt they would use a Lincoln arena however (unless of course a Lincoln arena was able to bring in acts like Bruce Springsteen or U2 over the Qwest - which is wishful thinking). 

And you definitely don’t want to hit people who are just driving through I-80 to get from Denver to Chicago and have no interest in Nebraska (they already got nailed by the gas stations in North Platte).

What would stop people from using Hwy 6?  Putting the toll up would move some traffic to Hwy 6 and that would put more traffic on it than it can probably handle. 

I’d be against this.

You could charge more for Highway 6. LOL

The people traveling between Omaha and Lincoln have already paid for the service with their tax money. If they’d lower the tax and replace it with the toll, then I’m for it.

But I pair for the service with my tax money, too. Shouldn’t someone who puts heavy use on the road every single day pay more than someone that only traverses it occasionally? Trucks should pay more - they do more wear and tear than cars. Again, this is in the spirit of a use tax.

Maybe the toll could pay for something more useful than an arena- like some kind of public transportation between Omaha and Lincoln. That’s the only situation in which I would be OK with it.