With the prospect of toll-road legislation coming in the next session of the Missouri General Assembly, an advocate for pay-as-you-drive highways was making a strong pitch for building more of them to an Oklahoma House subcommittee.
That might sound like preaching to the choir since our good neighbors to the southwest already account for 13 percent of the toll roads in the nation, but the truth is that highways on which motorists must pay a toll to travel aren’t popular.
Consider that in 2001, 56 percent of Oklahomans responding to a statewide Consumer Logic/Tulsa World poll wanted to scrap the state’s 600-mile turnpike system.
While we haven’t changed our mind that forcing drivers to pay tolls is making them pay again and again for something for which they’ve already paid, Assistant U.S. Secretary of Transportation Tyler Duvall did make an excellent point: Attempts to reduce fuel consumption in the future will cut into the revenues required for maintaining and building highways.
Missourians shouldn’t be too surprised if legislators ask them for a constitutional change that would permit toll roads on specific highways, such as Interstate 44 and Interstate 70, and bridges.
Toll roads won’t be an easy sell. Missourians have rejected them twice before — in 1970 and 1992. Eventually, whether next year or the year after, voters will be asked the toll road question again. Supporters are hoping a third time will prove the charm. We doubt it. Missourians, like their 2001 counterparts in Oklahoma, don’t like paying for something over and over.
Opinion
In Our View: Paying twice
- Opinion
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Our View: Victims should come first
Millions of dollars in donations have poured in from around the world since the May 22, 2011, tornado. Those donations represent money from lemonade stands, charity auctions, corporate gifts and celebrity checks, just to name a few. In fact, one year later donations continue to come to Joplin.
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Beth Meeker, guest columnist: Same-sex marriage battle a quest for equal rights
I would like to take a moment to reply to guest columnist Anson Burlingame’s, “The Marriage Debate” (Globe, May 13).
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Sunday Forum: 2012 graduation speakers key on tornado, mall school and president’s visit
Editor’s note: In addition to speeches by President Barack Obama and Gov. Jay Nixon, Joplin High School’s top students addressed graduates, faculty, parents and other guests packed into the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center on the Missouri Southern State University campus. Following are the text of those speeches.
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Geoff Caldwell, guest columnist: Pack mentality takes truth as a casualty
President Obama’s Joplin graduation speech Monday showed that while there’s the political “right,” there’s also a very active “rabid” political right.
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Your View: ‘Study’ can mean anything
A few evenings ago, I watched a television program on the science of marriage.
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Our View: Support for museum
How can you tell the story of Joplin without the accounts of its mining history?
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Our View: Finding middle ground
The G-8 summit held last week in Camp David ended as expected.
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Anson Burlingame, guest columnist: Class of 2012 upholds character, hope
My oldest granddaughter was part of the class of 2012 from Joplin High School, and I attended the ceremony on Monday night.
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Scott Charton, guest columnist: 'Deadline in Disaster' film a story about storytellers
Local newspapers are at their best when they help their communities confront, understand, endure and overcome shared challenges.
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Our View: Make voting easiser
This year’s ballot will not include a proposed constitutional amendment that photo identification be required at the polls in Missouri. Good.
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Our View: Victims should come first
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