■ 07 February 2012 | 5:00 AM
South vs. North
For years, Hampton Roads taxpayers have had their gas tax siphoned off to pay for massive transportation projects in Richmond and Northern Virginia. Now that we need improvements to our tunnels, those of us who use those tunnels will have to absorb an $800 to $1,000 annual hit on our taxes (via tolls).The fair and equitable way to fund tunnel improvements is a gas tax; the more one drives, the more one pays. If our politicians, both local and state, can't grasp this concept, then I say put tolls everywhere.
After all, this is the only way to ensure that the burden is shared equally.
And why haven't our local city leaders, en masse, come out strongly against these tolls (taxes)? Are they not cognizant of the tens of millions of dollars in discretionary spending that will be extracted from local business owners such as retailers and restaurateurs?
Isn't it time that our elected officials stand up for their constituents, now that it's really hitting their pocketbooks?
Tom Dingle
Suffolk
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Constituents?
The real constituents of this batch of politicians are the folks that will be collecting the toll! There is no quid pro quo in campaign contributions are there?
Maintenance
While more construction dollars have been going to Northern Virginia, the largest user of maintenance money is Hampton Roads - due to our water crossings. (Know how much is the upkeep of a tunnel?)
When you look at the big picture, the inbalance isn't that bad.
Not to be flippant
but that sound like we don't have enough roads, but they are in great shape.
And NOVA has plenty of roads, but they are falling apart.
We are still billions in backlogged construction and maintenance and slapping heavy profit making tolls on a few selected high density regions won't help that one iota.
The best user tax is a fuel tax.
Those who don't drive on our roads don't pay except through added shipping costs for products coming through our ports.
Those who do drive, get to do so on all our roads, anytime, anywhere for a small surcharge. And all the roads are connected and should be considered part of the region's transportation system.
And good quality roads benefit the entire state. As does the huge economic engine of our ports.
To saddle locals only with expensive tolls is myopic. Tidewater helped pay for all the roads through gas taxes over the year. Disproportionately so due to our high population.
We help pay for and maintain roads in rural areas that could never afford to build their own due to low population density and mountainous terrain.
So now, the GOP has forced us to cough up $1000 year for the average commuter, who, in this area is middle or working class. And if 2 people commute to maintain a median income of around $50K it would be upwards of $2K per year.
That is the true imbalance.