Virginia’s Latest Toll Scheme

It took years to beat back the state of Virginia’s ill-advised plan to toll Interstate 81, but eventually it was abandoned.

Trucking, and the state’s motorists, breathed a sigh of relief after that tolling scheme was tossed out.

Now, even after a change in administration at the state house, Virginia is back at it, asking the federal government for permission to install tolls on Interstate 95 near the North Carolina border (see story, p. 2 in this issue).

The state says it needs the money to maintain the interstate and that it has no alternative sources of revenue. And Virginia officials say they can reap upward of $60 million a year in tolls on this road.

Existing data show that about 38,000 vehicles a day travel this part of I-95, 17% of which are trucks. The toll on trucking would exceed that percentage, of course, because the state wants to levy the fee on a per-axle basis.

American Trucking Associations opposes tolling on existing interstates because it is inefficient and costs more than it does to raise highway funds through fuel taxes.

As we’ve said in the past, we are prepared to support tolls that are used to pay for projects that add capacity to existing roads or that are on new roads. But asking truck drivers and motorists to repay for roads that have been built by taxes we already have paid is beyond the pale.

Dale Bennett, executive vice president of the Virginia Trucking Association, put it well: “If you look at [the proposal] from an economic aspect, it’s obviously going to increase the cost of doing business . . . in that part of Virginia.”

Bennett said his group will meet with state officials to express its concerns and try to get the state to withdraw its proposal.

The federal government has prohibited tolling existing roadways, but Congress in 1998 established a pilot project that would permit three new tolling pilot projects on existing roads. Virginia has asked for this to be one of those projects.

Let’s hope Virginia officials can be made to see the light. The battle of I-81 was long and protracted and cost lots of groups a good deal of money.

ATA continues to advocate an increase in federal fuel taxes to provide the money for infrastructure development and maintenance, so long as the money is spent on road projects. Such a tax increase could provide Virginia the needed cash on a more efficient basis than new tolls on old roads.