Headlines

1. Tolls ‘wave of the future’ for WA highway projects
2. PA turnpike’s defenders go on offense
3. Calif. treasurer opposes tollway
4. Financing options urged for KY bridges
5. Poll: 56% of NJ residents oppose Gov’s plan to raise tolls

1. Tolls ‘wave of the future’ for WA highway projects
Washington has a long tradition of free highways, but the state will increasingly turn to tolls to pay for expensive bridges and selected road projects, lawmakers predict and reported in The Seattle Times. The state House and Senate transportation panels heard favorable reaction Thursday to legislation spelling out a tolling policy that could benefit future projects, including a new $4 billion floating bridge for Lake Washington. The 2008 legislation doesn’t authorize tolls for any particular project, but anticipates that future legislatures would vote on each toll project as it’s ready to go. "There’s no question, it’s the wave of the future," Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, said in an interview. "We need a different way to raise revenue to help build some of these major, major projects."

2. PA turnpike’s defenders go on offense
Pennsylvania turnpike supporters on Thursday fired back at those who back privatizing the toll highway, saying that could result in fare hikes more than double what motorists would face if the road remains under state control.. "Those toll increases are going to be significant," Majority Whip Keith McCall of Carbon County, the No. 2 House Democrat, told Pittsburgh’s Tribune-Review. "They (private companies) are going to want a big return on their money."

3. Calif. treasurer opposes tollway
California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, saying he was "deeply disappointed" by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s support for a toll road extension through San Onofre State Beach, called on the state Coastal Commission to reject the project, according to the Los Angeles Times. The toll road shouldn’t be built, Lockyer said Thursday, because "it would cut through the heart" of California’s sixth-most-popular state park. Last year, Lockyer, as state attorney general, filed a lawsuit to block the road, saying it would destroy environmental resources and disturb sacred religious and ceremonial sites for Native Americans.

4. Financing options urged for KY bridges
Kentucky Transportation Secretary Joe Prather said yesterday that the state’s road fund can’t pay for the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project and other large highway ventures, and he supports finding new ways to finance them, according to The Courier-Journal. Prather stopped short of endorsing a specific source of additional money, although his remarks came weeks before the state Transportation Cabinet expects to issue a report evaluating whether tolls are feasible for the Ohio River project.

5. Poll: 56% of NJ residents oppose Gov’s plan to raise tolls
More than half of New Jersey residents polled in a recent survey said they oppose Gov. Jon Corzine’s proposal to boost tolls by 50% to help pay down state debt and fund transportation infrastructure, according to The Bond Buyer (subscription). Monmouth University Polling Institute yesterday released the polling results, just one week after the governor announced his debt restructuring plan. That initiative involves the state forming a public benefit corporation that would sell nearly $37.6 billion of debt backed by toll increases, with the bond proceeds defeasing half of the state’s more than $30 billion of outstanding debt, paying down toll road bonds, and financing transportation infrastructure needs throughout the state.