Taking a toll

A proposal to allow a $1 billion privately funded toll lane project in Southern Nevada died Friday in a state legislative committee.

Assembly Bill 524 would have allowed a 19-mile "demonstration project," stretching toll lanes from U.S. Highway 95 near Ann Road to Interstate 15 and, using flyover lanes, connecting I-15 south to Interstate 215 so users could avoid on-ramps and off-ramps at the Spaghetti Bowl. A fee would have been charged for vehicles with one or two persons, with the tolls assessed via electronic scanners rather than toll booths.

Current state law prohibits both toll roads and such electronic collections.

Legislators showed disdain for the concept at a recent hearing in Democratic Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson's Transportation Committee. "I think everyone is uncomfortable with (toll lanes)," Mr. Atkinson said. "These are tough times, and the last thing citizens want to hear is that they have to pay for something else."

Does anyone really think the highways are free? Our current roads are funded primarily through excise taxes on gasoline and tires, which are indeed a relatively "painless" set of extractions, since they're collected indirectly, though they do introduce the problem of redistribution through Washington, where many an unconstitutional "string" is attached.

The state Department of Transportation sets priorities for using those funds, and while it's true enough Southern Nevada's congestion should bring the region a bigger share, the fact is the congestion-relieving lanes in this modest and limited proposal won't be built any time soon unless they can be "taken out of line" and built by a private firm in exchange for the promise of toll revenues.

"Here was a way, without raising fees and taxes, to address our capacity issues and funding shortages," explained Nevada Department of Transportation Director Susan Martinovich.

Under this NDOT proposal, no Nevada driver would have been charged a toll to drive on roads that now exist; no Nevada driver would have been left without a toll-free alternative route.

Privatized alternative lanes and roadways are being tried all around the country. They're working out pretty well.

Added to the Legislature's intransigence when it comes to allowing nonwealthy students to escape dysfunctional public schools via private-school voucher or tax-credit programs, the fact that such a modest version of highway construction reform couldn't even work its way through an Assembly committee as a "demonstration project" is a further indication of the extent to which foot-dragging reactionaries now dominate that body.