The Missouri Department of Transportation, MODOT, is looking into ways of funding necessary maintenance on the main east-to-west highway across Missouri — Interstate 70. One funding option is to raise the gas tax state-wide. An alternative proposal from MODOT is to institute a toll on the highway.

In this video, Show-Me Institute Policy Analyst David Stokes suggests the the latter option makes more sense economically, as the people using the highway will be the ones paying for it.  A rare bad idea from the Show-Me-institute, we have five concerns about toll roads that Mr. Stokes failed to address in the video:

1. Tolls continue long after the road is paid for.
2. Tolls rise automatically, with no public input.
3. Residents nearest urban toll roads are hit the hardest.
4. Road costs are not shared equally by all taxpayers.
5. Toll roads are in essence a regressive tax which suggests that those who have better financial means have access to better transportation options.

Related:

Post Dispatch:Missouri gets glimpse of I-70 as toll road

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