AS WE SEE IT
Questions need answering before tolls implemented
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Talk of toll roads in Tennessee took another turn last week with Gov. Phil Bredesen saying he would support the creation of a state authority to oversee proposals to charge for driving on new roads and bridges built in Tennessee. Bredesen and others have suggested toll roads and public/private partnerships might just be the state’s answer to shrinking funds for highway construction. Tennessee has seen its federal highway funding slashed by more than $71 million in recent years. At the same time, the governor is looking to return the last of the $258 million state officials borrowed from a dedicated highway account (funded by the state’s 21.4 cents per gallon tax on gasoline) to balance the state budget a few years ago. Freshman Rep. Kent Williams, RElizabethton, said last week he doubts the state General Assembly will give serious consideration to green-lighting toll roads this year. However, he said the issue will likely receive more attention next year when discussions begin on a likely 8- to 10-cent hike to the state gas tax. We agree with Rep. Matthew Hill, RJonesborough, who said Friday he doesn’t think state officials should be talking about toll roads or gas tax hikes until the remaining $30 million (as he put it) “stolen” from the dedicated highway fund for other purposes is returned. Toll roads would certainly enable the state to build more roads quicker without raising the fuel tax, but there are a number of key questions that must be answered before state officials begin to ask Tennesseans to pay twice (once through state taxes, and again through a toll) to drive on a new highway. Just which roads and bridges will be designated as toll collectors? Will the state do the collecting, or will it contract with private firms to collect the tolls? If toll roads are sanctioned in Tennessee, how long before officials in Nashville follow the example of other states in leasing those toll roads and bridges to private companies? What power will the state have over fee hikes levied by these private operators? Shrinking tax bases have made toll roads and the private operation of public highways more palatable for politicians from California to Florida, but lawmakers here in Tennessee should proceed with caution before embracing the idea. Such a proposal shouldn’t be allowed to take a toll on the wallets of motorists in the Volunteer State. When Ted Haggard, a megachurch pastor and leader of a national group of evangelical Christians, confessed last year to committing homosexual acts with a male prostitute, some on the liberal end of the political spectrum erupted in snickers of schadenfreude. They were delighted to see a minister who had condemned homosexuality hoisted by his own petard. It just goes to show you those holy rollers are a bunch of phonies, or something. What goes around comes around, though, and earlier this year a former president of the ACLU of Virginia was arrested on child-porn charges. Rightwing bloggers made much of the matter (including the minor amount of play the story received in the national media). It underscores, they say, their argument that the ACLU is a friend to perverts and a foe to crime victims. Rubbish. This newspaper agrees with the ACLU on some things and disagrees with it on others. But those policy positions have nothing at all to do with the behavior of any particular individual, or vice versa. Attempts to imply guilt by association happen all the time, of course: If a Republican (or a Democrat) gets busted for an ethics violation in Congress, some Democrats (or Republicans) inevitably insist that the single instance proves You Just Can’t Trust Those Guys. In the broadest sense, they’re right. Those Guys, like Us Guys, are human — and humans are fallible. Any group made up of individuals will include some who stumble. There is only one broader lesson to draw from such cases, which is that there are no broader lessons to draw.
