Double Speak Quadruple Tax

When will the madness stop?

Our federal taxes help pay for it, the sales tax helps pay for it, the lodging tax helps pay for it, the gas taxes help pay for it and the you-name-it tax helps pay for it.

But that is just not enough. They still want more.

Drivers to See Major Toll Hikes

California: A board is considering a proposal for a $1 increase in the toll for the Golden Gate bridge. (The current fee is $5.) In addition, San Francisco may make drivers pay an extra $2 when they exit the bridge.


Massachusetts: On Jan. 1, the state began charging an extra 50 cents for using the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels in Boston. The money will go toward the "Big Dig," the notorious city highway project that has run over budget.


New Jersey: The governor has proposed increasing tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike, above, and the Garden State Parkway by 50 percent every four years starting in 2010. Additional adjustments would be made for inflation.


Pennsylvania: The state plans to hike tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, above, 25 percent in 2009 and hopes to turn Interstate 80 into a toll road. Cars would pay $25 to drive the 316 miles of I-80 in Pennsylvania; trucks would pay $93.


Paying More To Drive The Highways

You may think the states above are isolated cases and it won't affect you because you don't live there.

The truth of the matter is that plans are already in the works in several states, including the Silver State Of Nevada that I live and drive in, to collect tolls.

The push is going to start with making freeways into toll roads or, at least as a start, some of the lanes into toll lanes.

One in Nevada and Arizona I suspect will be a toll road as soon as it opens is the Hoover (Boulder) dam bypass.



United States Highway 93 (U.S. 93) has been designated a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) route. The increasing congestion caused by the switchbacks leading to the Hoover Dam site and the restrictions at the dam crossing have led to the development of the Hoover Bypass Project. The Hoover Dam Bypass Project is a 3.5-mile corridor beginning at approximately milepost 2.2 in Clark County, Nevada and crossing the Colorado River approximately 1,500 feet downstream of the Hoover Dam, then terminating in Mohave County, Arizona near milepost 1.7 on U.S. 93.

Construction on the nearly 2,000 foot long bridge began in late January 2005 and the completion of the entire Hoover Dam Bypass Project is expected in June 2010. When completed, this signature bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,600 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River.




There is even talk of making the two-lane road from Las Vegas to Reno a toll road.

Now maybe you are saying, "Well that won't bother me because I won't be driving on that many toll roads."

Think twice my friends. The trucks that haul goods you purchase will be traveling them and paying tolls on each and every one of them which in turn will be passed onto you the consumer.