Highway Tolls

by Tony Chavira

Hey, guess what guys!

Using Federal Highway Administration statistics, Subsidyscope has calculated that in 2007, 51 percent of the nation's $193 billion set aside for highway construction and maintenance was generated through user fees—down from 10 years earlier when user fees made up 61 percent of total spending on roads.

In other words, tolls and fees aren't the way that companies who build roads make their money these days.  Wanna take a guess how they do it?  (Hint: not magic.)

The rest came from other sources, including revenue generated by income, sales and property taxes, as well as bond issues.

Yup.  We're paying them with government subsidies.  This does not bode well for P3 advocates.  And what does this say to free market advocates, aside from "the free market can't pay for your roads"?

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