The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) will kick off a week of “open house” meetings today to promote a proposal that would add tolls along the 400 miles of Interstate 80 that pass through the state. Unlike interstate tolling plans introduced in other parts of the country as “congestion reduction” measures, this one would not add new lane capacity. In a state with a population of just over a half-million, congestion is not even an issue after projecting population and traffic growth for another thirty years. WYDOT’s real target is out-of-state truck drivers.
Interstate 80 serves as a primary route for trucks hauling goods between Northern California and New Jersey. Wyoming’s share of the highway sees an average of just 12,920 vehicles per day. Trucks account for one-half of traffic, or a daily volume of 6,438. In absolute terms, the figure is lower than all other primary interstate routes. For example, an average of 10,000 trucks use Interstate 95 between Florida and Virginia on a daily basis along with another 62,000 automobiles. Still, Wyoming wants to hit the eighty percent of traffic that is just passing through the state.
“Federal interstate maintenance funding levels are currently insufficient to properly maintain the Wyoming span of I-80 due to high levels of truck traffic,” a WYDOT-funded tolling feasibility study stated. “The two approaches that merited further consideration from a financial feasibility perspective were truck-only toll lanes and tolling of all traffic on the existing capacity without any roadway expansion. These two approaches are politically challenging, but financially, have promise in solving WYDOT’s roadway maintenance funding dilemma.”
Under the current system, motorists pay an 18.4-cent federal tax and a 14-cent state tax for each gallon of gas sold in Wyoming. The tax is collected at the distributor level with very little overhead. For the $166 million in federal fuel and motoring taxes paid into the system in 2007, Wyoming received $238 million back in federal road funding. This 43-percent boost comes from populous “donor” states like California and Texas under the theory that the entire country benefits by subsidizing interstates in rural areas so that goods can travel coast-to-coast quickly and efficiently.
Wyoming currently does not use tolls on any of its roads, but WYDOT is betting that Congress this year will change the rules and eliminate restrictions on the tolling of interstate highways. WYDOT is mounting a public relations campaign to encourage the state legislature to act now.
“If Wyoming wishes to participate in future tolling opportunities allowed by the FHWA, it is critical to establish tolling legislation and organizational plans for a smooth implementation,” the report stated.
The study explained that, unlike in other states, there would be little sense in using the billions that would be raised on new lane construction. It also explained that other state departments of transportation believe that congestion on free roads can be wielded as an economic tool to force motorists to pay to use toll roads. Because this tool is unavailable in Wyoming, the plan depends upon motorist confusion and the threat of dangerous conditions to drive traffic onto the paid route.
“A parallel facility would be prohibitively expensive and congestion on the primary competing free road, I-80 is not sufficient to cause motorists to use the toll road,” the report concluded. “Diversion options are not likely to be considered cost effective by truckers unless the toll rate on I-80 was in excess of about $170, especially in winter months when these roads could be much more treacherous than I-80…. passenger cars traveling long distances or from out of state would not likely know an efficient route by which to divert around the tolling point.”
Using mapping software and computer modeling, the study calculated how many trucks and cars would divert to alternate surface street and freeway routes based on the added cost in time and fuel to do so. It concluded that the optimal toll rate of $116 per truck and $9.46 per car would generate $172 million in annual revenue and cut use of the road by half. That amount is far in excess of what it costs to run the road.
As a freeway, it costs just $13 million per year to run Wyoming’s stretch of Interstate 80. This amount includes $6.9 million for pavement maintenance, $4 million for snow removal and $2 million for miscellaneous costs such as trash removal and guardrail repair.
The overhead and equipment required to collect tolls nearly doubles the cost, adding $12 million to the annual bill. This amount includes $5 million for credit card transaction and toll processing fees, $2.3 million to deploy ten highway patrol officers toll violation ticket duty, $1.9 million for a courtesy patrol, $1.5 million in salaries for two dozen staff, $810,440 for office space and supplies, $591,590 to maintain the tolling equipment and $180,400 to pay the manager in charge of the project.
Under the full-price tolling plan, the state would generate $147 million in annual profit, which would grow to $550 million a year by 2030 thanks to regular toll increases. The study briefly mentioned that by indexing the existing 14 cent gas tax to the rate of inflation, the state would collect an extra $184 million over ten years without tolling.
The real story here is that states around the country are hiking fees any way they can to make up for severe shortfalls of revenue, due to the lousy economy.
In my home state (NJ), state patrolmen are staked out everywhere and have a contest going to see who can write the most tickets. Also, some towns in my state actually make you buy a permit if you want to have a garage sale, with a separate fee to put out the signs advertising the garage sale.
What comes next…a tax for breathing the air?
The don’t need to install toll booths.
Set up a bunch of traffic lights with a 2 second “yellow” with a bunch of cameras.
Same financial bonanza without all the construction…
“Federal interstate maintenance funding levels are currently insufficient to properly maintain the Wyoming span of I-80 due to high levels of truck traffic,”
In a state like Wyoming, with very few residents, I can see lack of funding being a problem. At least with toll roads, they’re going about rectifying that problem in a fairly reasonable manner. Like commando1 said, the state could just stiff the residents with b/s traffic cameras. Or they could just line the highway with troopers and nail people for going a mile over the limit. Their roads provide a means for truckers (and others) to make the east to west journey. Their highway provides a service and they want to get paid for it. No big deal.
If their goal is to squeeze more money from long haul truckers the easy and simple way would be to raise taxes on diesel fuel. Apportioned trucks have pay road tax to every state they pass though.
Alternately they could copy Oregons ton-mile tax and offer similar generous low rates for intrastate traffic.
“passenger cars traveling long distances or from out of state would not likely know an efficient route by which to divert around the tolling point.”
HA! 10 years ago perhaps, but most folks driving across the country today can easily set their GPS to avoid toll roads.
This could backfire if they set the tolls too high, its not that difficult to avoid WY entirely via 15-70-76 going east.
Like all of us here, I hate paying tolls, but I am not sure what states like Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota are supposed to do for funding. They have tiny populations, but many miles of roadways that must be paid for. To put it in perspective, Wyoming has 15,000 square miles more area than all of New England, but they have the same population as Weymouth, MA. Perhaps, this is the least of all evils. One thing for sure, it does keep the citizens of Wyoming from having to pick up the state’s share of the tab.
If only these states would combine the no speed limit idea with high toll fees, perhaps they could even turn a profit on people who want to drive at hyper speeds (and pass on the shoulder?).
What other legal activity can generate a profit of 600% on costs? I do appreciate the idea of the truckers passing on the road repair costs of delivering arugula to the East Coast chattering classes, but this is ridiculous.
Also interesting to see that the overhead on actual cost is close to 100%. You have to love government efficiency. Its one of those terms like military music….
Redstapler,
your point is well made. While it might not be possible to drive through Wyoming with any efficiency via secondary roads, it might be easy to miss Wyoming all together.
Wyoming roads are usually some of the best in the country. WYDOT is well funded through relatively high vehicle related taxes in the state, and while it may seem that the state has such a small tax base for such a large area, vast volumes of energy production and its associated tax revenue have made Wyoming a well funded surplus-state, though lately natural gas prices have fallen and the state has been trying to cut costs in several areas. Even with this tax base, I-80 is one of the busiest interstates I’ve seen and it is because of all of the truck traffic. WYDOT does their best to keep up with maintenance, but with ever-increasing truck traffic, I-80 is seeing disproportionate use and I can see how toll-roads would be a viable option.
superbadd75 :
Their highway provides a service and they want to get paid for it. No big deal.
This is the myopia that the tollers depend on to sell their snake oil. Have you stopped to consider for, oh, ten seconds, what it would cost to ship goods — say a classic car you bought in California or New York — across the country? It’s $116 for Wyoming. Then add $200 for Ohio. $80 for Nevada. $75 for Utah. $100 for Indiana. $200 for Nebraska. $300 for Pennsylvania. $500 for New Jersey. Etc. The Federalist Papers specifically mention tolls as the sort of parochialism that the constitution was intended to prevent.
Read the numbers. There aren’t really that many trucks in Wyoming and the maintenance cost is MORE than covered by the gas tax.
You pretty much can’t drive a car (one worth driving, anyway) through Wyoming without stopping for gas. I would wager that every trucker tops off the tank in Wyoming since it has the cheapest gas in the lower 48. Wyoming gets a subsidy from other states. In other words, the current system has the problem covered.
I’m surprised to read this as It was my understanding is that Wyoming had additional licensing requirements for commercial vehicles that help fund all of their roads, as I-80 along with even their dirt roads are some of the best maintained in the country. For example it is obvious when you pass from Wyoming into surrounding states. Although for winter snow storms, I-80 is an easy drive to just put the cruise control on 80 mph and forget about it.
I don’t think that truckers would take I-70 vs. I-80, just that I-70 has much more passes, twists and turns to it.
PA has tried to toll I80 for years and it fell on deaf ears. They had a scheme where they would scan the tags of cars and mail you a bill. Then they could politically exempt local residents or anyone else the politicians needed votes from. This eliminated the toll booth workers and maximized the take. The unions were not amused and insisted on several workers working three shifts at each exit. Picture a rabbit (the driver) surrounded by wolves( the various companies and entities standing to benefit)
Virginia has been after I64 for a long time. They see a captive market and juicy revenues.
The federal government takes a dim view of states tolling roads and skimming far more off for other means. In PA, a huge chunk of the tolls was destined for public transportation wage and retirement costs in Philly, 200 miles from I80, to support a government entity with a 88 million dollar surplus. More funds were to be diverted as the corrupt legislature saw fit. More toll roads on former free federal highways were planned if they got I80
I looked at the projected costs for employees in the wyoming debacle. Let me get this straight:
230K a piece for toll collection police officers
180K for a manager
62500 each 2 dozen staff
800K for office space and pencils
1.9 million for “courtesy patrol”
Am I not the only one who sees a bit of fraud, waste and abuse here? Are the people who run the NJ and PA turnpikes advising them on staff costs and expenses?
My daughter lived near Denver for a while, and a stretch of I-80 is definitely on the shortest route there from the Seattle area. But I-80 goes through some of the most boring scenery in the United States in its western Wyoming portion, and although I-70 through Colorado west of Denver may take longer, the far more picturesque scenery seals the deal for me. And, I-70 isn’t a slow road either.
If a state like Wyoming, which is already doing pretty well taxwise, both from its good return on federal taxes and its PSC taxes on trucks, wants to add tolls besides all that, lord only knows who else will be jumping on that bandwagon.
This may be a good time to be a salesman for a railroad or air freight operation. If this toll baloney gets started it will adversely affect shipping costs for truck lines.
NSFW the government. “Vandals of the world unite !”.
Wolverines !
P.S.- will they eliminate the gasoline tax ? -You bet ! LOL
Lightly populated states like Wyoming already make out like bandits thanks to the net inflow of federal money compared to the pittance in taxes their residents and businesses pay. The real irony is that Senators from states like Wyoming, the Dakotas and Alaska routinely wail about how the federal government is too big and collects too many taxes, only to be pigs at the trough busily siphoning money out of the highly populated states and into their Bastions of Freedom and Self-Reliance. Ironically, they sometimes refer to their home states as where the Real Americans live whilst sneering at the not-Real Americans living along the coasts.
Adding tolls to roads all of the taxpayers paid for is wrong.
I have no problem with using tolls to pay for construction of new roads in areas with traffic congestion. On the other hand, adding tolls to the existing public interstate highway system crosses the line.
If Wyoming just wants more tax revenue for road maintenance, why not raise the state taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline? They are lower than neighboring states, so they could increase the existing tax without shifting fuel purchase to neighboring states.
Diesel Tax Map
http://www.api.org/statistics/fueltaxes/upload/Diesel_Map_4_2009.pdf
Gasoline Tax Map
http://www.api.org/statistics/fueltaxes/upload/Gasoline_Map_4_2009.pdf
Seems to me another possibility would be for Wyoming to create a tax district that runs alongside the interstate and tax only those businesses or entities that are in some way related to the interstate: Truck stops, convenience store/gas stations, and restaurants within a certain distance of the highway. That way the additional tax would be paid for by the road users themselves without having to construct an elaborate toll regime.
The only difficult thing there would be drawing the line between those businesses that primarily serve the interstate and those that serve the community. Wyoming has fewer than 20 cities that exceed 10,000 population and 6 of these lie along I-80.
As fond as I am of the Cowboy State (I graduated from UW Law in ’05) this really looks like a shakedown, though: WYDOT knows that there’s no practical altenative to I-80 (both I-90 and I-70 are more mountainous and would require an excess drive of several hundred miles compared to I-80) and this is an example of a government levying a tax not so much because they need the money but because they figure it would be very difficult for the people being taxed to evade it.
It’s also one of the only ways a state can legally tax non-residents, which is win-win for the politicians because the people who will pay the tax don’t have the opportunity to vote them out of office.
If only these states would combine the no speed limit idea with high toll fees,
Combined with road improvements to insure safety (provided you know how to drive), this could be great. The problem is, they are nto going to improve I80 so that speeds in excess of 100 mph could be safe. I would love to take my car up to its limit of 145 mph – it feels rock solid at 120, but I don’t want to die (or get thrown in jail) trying.
It seems that if Wyoming truly is having problems maintaining their roads due to heavy truck traffic, a truck only surcharge is the only fair solution. Charging a toll of x dollars just because that is what you calculate will bring the most money into the state coffers is real sleazy.
I drove I80 through WY last week but I came back on I90 (went to Grand Teton, Yellowstone). I actually thought I90 was a better route. Well, minus the hailstorm in SD.
And both were very well maintained. Especially compared to the roads in northern IL.