EDITOR NOTE–Wonk, I “export” a huge per cent of my work–like other major players in Boise– and pay direct taxes only in the USA. I don’t use ANY government agencies like Commerce and Development to market overseas, and through the GUARDIAN I share my knowledge and expertise for free with the public. GIven my position on the Chamber of Commerce and its receipt of tax money and charity from politicos, I could never make a living in Boise without compromising my beliefs. Hope this helps.

Mr. Watcher: Re we “cannot trust the people in government to live up to their end of an agreement”:
Duh! Ask any American Indian how well the government has lived up to all the treaties they signed many years ago and *still* haven’t fulfilled.
Or ask the military members who were told their term of service would be completed by a certain date, and then were told they had been “extended.”
Or ask … oh, well, OK, anybody who’s ever had an agreement with or a promise from the government.

That was also exactly the case with the Conn Turnpike. They had to drag the state screaming and kicking into court to get them to stop the greed. Maine passed a temporary sales tax increase and once again, the temporary provisions were ignored until the public threatened a law suit. Once government gets its fingers into ones wallet, there is no going back.

Put another way, government can never ever be trusted to live up to their promises. California PROMISED that their scheme to register ‘assault rifles’ was in no way a plan to confiscate them…yet they did.

As to another fellows comment on not wanting to pay for it…NO, we expect our pseudo leaders to set priorities, fund what is important and not the rest of the fluff. Politicians prefer to pretend all issues are their number one issue and never make a real decision. They always go back for more money.

The really interesting part is the toll may vary with traffic loads. The more traffic the higher the toll. Thinking is to get it high enough that each user will make a cost benifit choice. This does two things. First it keeps the toll roads flowing for the most part. Second, people know when high tolls are in effect and schedule their driving accordingly.

The really nice part of toll roads are they get all users to pay and that includes out of state drivers.

Crumbling roads has more to do with big heavy trucks than a car or pickup truck at less than 3 tons. The weight concentrated on each wheel of these trucks on the highway surfaces is tremendous. Get the trucks back on the rail syatem would be a good start.

Tolls???

No, no, no…

We Americans want it all; but don’t want to pay for it!

Passing on the economic, social and political costs to future generations so we can perpetuate the illusion of American economic superiority (“Free Markets” my posterior!).

Not so fast Ed!
This is a classic example that we can see how government works in such matters, thank you for bring up the point. The Coronado Bridge was a up front deal that government gave its word to the voters if they voted for the bonds to build the Coronado Bridge. The toll would stop the day the bonds were paid off. It took 15 years after the bonds were paid off to get the toll to stop. The story above is, government is now looking at restarting the toll once again.
The bottom line here is, we as citizens can not trust the people in government to live up to their end of an agreement with us the taxpayers/citizens.
For more on the Coronado Bridge and its history of lying and cheating the citizens even with a written agreement from the time of the bonds were voted to be issued. Do a web search using: Coronado Bridge toll.
Ed, have a safe trip home.