Are toll roads answer for state's road funding crisis?

Nebraska's highways are in good condition, but won't be for long if we don't find a way to pay for them.

Our current system, using primarily fuel tax, has been a good one. The more one drives, wearing out the roads, the more fuel one buys, thus providing more tax money to repair the roads.

But people are driving less, and using more fuel-efficient cars when they do. In fact, one company recently announced a plug-in hybrid car that will achieve an effective 134 miles per gallon of gasoline, and other pure electric cars will use no gas at all.

Plus, once current federal stimulus money, like that that recently helped complete the J Street project, is depleted, the Nebraska Department of Roads is expected to have about $90 million less for road construction.

With increased highway construction costs, a legislative report predicts the total cost of highway construction over the next two decades at $13 billion, and says Nebraska may be able to cover only about $6.4 billion of that.

People attending statewide hearings suggested measures such as raising the fuel tax, increasing the vehicle-registration fee, applying the motor-vehicle tax to older cars that are now exempt, creating a per-mile tax so revenue is generated from electric cars whose users don't pay fuel tax, and an additional fee on oversized or overweight commercial vehicles.

More controversial, but worth a serious look is a suggestion by a Platte Institute report that toll roads involving public-private partnerships, like the E-470 toll road in Denver, be considered for Nebraska.

These wouldn't be your father's toll road, with bottlenecks at toll booths slowing traffic for miles. New technology makes it possible for regular commuters to pay electronically while slowing hardly at all.

The idea isn't unique to Nebraska. Pennsylvania is already petitioning Washington to allow Interstate 80 to be converted into a toll road in that state.

If that ever happens in our state, it might have an unintended benefit for Southwest Nebraska: More traffic on U.S. 6-34 for travelers wanting to avoid the toll road.

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