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Gov. Mike Braun says tolling needs to be an option for Indiana's road funding future (www.wfyi.org)

submitted 6 days ago by redfox@infosec.pub to c/indiana@midwest.social

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Could anyone explain this in a way that doesn't make me hate it?

The usual arguments I relate to are things like: we are taxed multiple times for vehicle ownership. Purchase, plates, mandatory insurance, gas tax, parking. Did I miss any?

Now I know there's plenty of people who would rather have robust public transportation, which would be nice, but I don't see that happening as a result of all this money I'm already paying.

People who make just enough or barely enough to afford to drive to work could now have to pay for the right to trade their precious time for money.

Insert tirade here about that.

I've heard view points regarding tolls:

recover costs to maintain interstate infrastructure used by commercial trucking to move the rolling warehouse of America around so Jeff Bitchboy can have a Venice wedding and I can have my materialistic lifestyle delivered to my door possibly the same day...sorry slipped into rant.

Should I be looking at this a different way before I exercise the almost non-existent power I have as a resident and voter, which is sending emails to my elected corrupt aristocrats and beg them to consider regular people, darn did it again.

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[–] Cort@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Federal funding for road projects (among myriad others) is being cut, so funding will have to come from somewhere.

If they really wanted to target drivers passing through the state as that claim, they should exempt hoosiers entirely from the tolls. But I think they're just blowing smoke, so their constituents won't get mad.

The alternatives, as I see them, would be increasing registration fees or gas tax. Gas tax increase is obviously a no-go, because people will complain about fuel costs rising. Higher registration fees could be possible since they've done it before on electric vehicles, but would be argued against as: reducing the ability of poor families to afford a car.

If I had my way, I'd exempt anything below 2 tons, since the heavier vehicles do far more damage. Then use 50% of the revenue to build a cycleway parallel to Kentucky ave, and another at mass ave to 21st and/or 30th.

[–] redfox@infosec.pub 1 points 20 minutes ago

I agree with heavy commercial vehicles doing more damage, and wouldn't be as opposed in their case.

The downside of course being higher costs for freight since we have had 100+ years of dismantling rail, which I heard was most economical way to move freight, but slower.

My plate fee for a Tacoma was $600. I don't see how that can get higher.

Not that I could affect anything, but I wish we had more insight into the road project costs, and where money goes.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Gas taxes are stupid. Switch to taking mileage reading at a yearly car inspection and charge a tax per mile (factoring in car weight).