LETTER ON TOLL ROAD DOUBLE TAXATION
Sharon has it right as do many of our supporters who have emailed me with similar thoughts. These toll plans are not only DOUBLE taxation but UNEQUAL taxation. Read this terrific letter!
Read it in the Dallas Morning News.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
12:00 AM CST on Saturday, February 4, 2006
Tolls are unequal taxation. The Texas Department of Transportation states, “Paying to drive on a tollway is an optional user fee, not an additional tax. Motorists who choose to drive the tollway and pay the user fee should experience reduced travel time to their destination.” Since the gas tax is not optional and it is supposed to be used to pay for our roads, they are wrong. Tolls are taxes. If my gas tax is used to pay for a free highway in North Collin County and I have to pay an additional toll to use State Highway 121, then it is double taxation.
That being said, I would prefer that the North Texas Tollway Authority have control versus a foreign company. The NTTA uses about 17 percent of its budget to just collect tolls; if you add a 20 percent profit for a foreign company, then 47 percent of tolls would not be used for construction and maintenance.
There should never be a profit from a road. Our government’s job is to provide security, infrastructure, public education and public health services. Our state government needs to get back to the basics and provide us with what our gas tax was meant to pay for. If two people pay the same gas tax and one has to pay an additional toll tax to use a road, then there are unequal transportation opportunities. I am waiting for the first lawsuit based on economic justice and tollroads.
Sharon Overall, Plano