Reason In the News

If Our Infrastructure Is Crumbling, Are Tolls the Answer?

Heavy Duty Trucking

January 3, 2012

Deborah Lockridge, editor of Heavy Duty Trucking, writes:

Two stories hit my desk last week that highlight the place of tolls and public-private partnerships in the debate on infrastructure funding.

First, there was this Reason-Rupe opinion poll finding that 77% of those polled oppose increasing the federal fuel tax, while 58% thought new roads and highways should be funded by tolls, and 55% favored using public-private partnerships to build critical infrastructure projects. 

This followed a recent town hall meeting where presidential hopeful Mitt Romney Romney said he doesn't like borrowing, but is willing to do it if there's a specific revenue stream to pay it back -- and specifically used tolls as an example.

It's not the first survey to put numbers to Americans' reluctance to pay higher fuel taxes, even though most agree that something needs to be done about our infrastructure. In a study done almost a year ago by the Rockefeller Foundation, only 27% said that raising the federal gasoline tax would be an "acceptable" way to provide more highway funding. Instead, most survey respondents supported more private investment as an acceptable option for raising more transportation money.

Full piece here.

The Reason-Rupe transportation poll is here.