Tolls up to $1

[CNHT]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=dc5c03b6-4bfa-4ab9-a667-c2081d53bdf3&headline=State+House+Dome%3a+Exact+change+lanes+to+be+removed

Thanks to our midget governor.

[error]

I'm not sure which is dumber: that the baskets are being replaced with people, or that people tried to throw dollar bills in the baskets.

[Jared]

i pay two tolls getting to work from biddeford, maine to portsmouth, nh every day - $.60 and $1.75, both ways! blah. averages to almost $100 a month.

[mvpel]

Baskets don't get pensions and overtime, so they can't be handed out as political plums to the well-connected.  Did you guys see that article about the toll takers in Mass getting salaries about twice as high as a teacher?

[Ruger Mason]

Its these kinds of issues that are election killers for Lynch.  State Republicans ought to buy billboards near the tolls to remind voters of why they're paying $1 now.

[supperman15]

and what that averages if they are going to and from work on that RD every day.

Twice as much as teachers?!?!?!?!?!?!   well i guess it makes sense... teachers only call for extortion to keep there jobs, and they render a service.  While toll collectors actually do the extortion. 

[CNHT]

Teachers at least work with 25+ children of all levels thrown in together, per day, every grueling day, expected to work miracles with little, while educrats sit in their offices dreaming up new tasks for them handed down by the UN and the Feds, but make twice the money.

[Spencer]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

[KBCraig]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

Better yet, obey the NH Constitution, which requires that all tolls and highway taxes be used for the highways, instead of siphoning off over 60% to non-highway programs.

[NHRes2004]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

Better yet, obey the NH Constitution, which requires that all tolls and highway taxes be used for the highways, instead of siphoning off over 60% to non-highway programs.

I've seen this in a few places. Is there an original source - other than the budget itself - that shows this information?

[KBCraig]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

Better yet, obey the NH Constitution, which requires that all tolls and highway taxes be used for the highways, instead of siphoning off over 60% to non-highway programs.

I've seen this in a few places. Is there an original source - other than the budget itself - that shows this information?

http://www.unionleader.com/pda-article.aspx?articleId=15b3e62c-dbfc-4b2e-8f01-40e5e8b01b2c

Highway funding: Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

CONCORD – As the state struggles to find money to fix bridges and highways, the equivalent of nearly two of each three cents in state gasoline taxes is diverted from road construction.

The state's budget sends highway fund money to eight state agencies where workers never touch a shovel, welding torch or bucket of asphalt. Of the total $128 million in gasoline taxes raised in 2007, $79 million, or 62 percent, was used for non-construction purposes, a Legislative Budget Assistant's Office report shows. A total of $107 million was transferred out of Department of Transportation hands in 2007; $28 million of that went to the betterment of local roads.

The Department of Safety, which received $70 million or 30 percent of all highway funds last year, gets the bulk of the transferred funds, mostly to cover costs of highway patrols by state police. But Health and Human Services, state courts, the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Environmental Services and the Office of Information Technology also share in the transfers.

The LBA report on 10 years of highway fund uses was discussed at a legislative hearing yesterday, part of a multi-pronged look at transportation construction plans and funding.

Total transfers away from road construction and maintenance in fiscal 2007 worked out to 62 cents of every dollar raised by gasoline taxes.

The state highway fund is fed primarily by two sources: the gasoline tax, at 18 cents a gallon, and motor vehicle registrations. The state Constitution requires the money to be used for highway construction, maintenance and "the supervision of traffic thereon." For decades, state budget writers have used highway funds to cover other highway-related costs.

But the pace picked up over the past 10 years. Total transfers of highway funds went from 33 percent in 1999 to 46 percent in 2007. Five years ago, the total transfers away from road construction and maintenance was 42 cents of every dollar raised by gas taxes. That compares to 62 cents in fiscal 2007.

Lawmakers want to make sure that funds transferred to other agencies need to be shifted there. At Safety, for instance, some of the funding pays for state detectives whose work seldom involves highway offenses.

...

[atr]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

Better yet, obey the NH Constitution, which requires that all tolls and highway taxes be used for the highways, instead of siphoning off over 60% to non-highway programs.

I've seen this in a few places. Is there an original source - other than the budget itself - that shows this information?

Unfortunately, the NH Constitution authorizes the use of highway revenue for police who "supervise" traffic:

Part II, Art. 6-a, adopted Nov. 29, 1938

[Use of Certain Revenues Restricted to Highways.] All revenue in excess of the necessary cost of collection and administration accruing to the state from registration fees, operators' licenses, gasoline road tolls or any other special charges or taxes with respect to the operation of motor vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels shall be appropriated and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of public highways within this state, including the supervision of traffic thereon and payment of the interest and principal of obligations incurred for said purposes; and no part of such revenues shall, by transfer of funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose whatsoever.

[J’raxis 270145]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

Better yet, obey the NH Constitution, which requires that all tolls and highway taxes be used for the highways, instead of siphoning off over 60% to non-highway programs.

I've seen this in a few places. Is there an original source - other than the budget itself - that shows this information?

Unfortunately, the NH Constitution authorizes the use of highway revenue for police who "supervise" traffic:

Part II, Art. 6-a, adopted Nov. 29, 1938

[Use of Certain Revenues Restricted to Highways.] All revenue in excess of the necessary cost of collection and administration accruing to the state from registration fees, operators' licenses, gasoline road tolls or any other special charges or taxes with respect to the operation of motor vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels shall be appropriated and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of public highways within this state, including the supervision of traffic thereon and payment of the interest and principal of obligations incurred for said purposes; and no part of such revenues shall, by transfer of funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose whatsoever.

But that still doesn't justify the transfers to Health and Human Services, state courts, the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Environmental Services, and the Office of Information Technology. Those are the most blatantly illegal transfers, and should be the ones that are attacked first.

[NHRes2004]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to cut the State Police patrols and not hire 200 new employees and just keep the toll where it is?

Better yet, obey the NH Constitution, which requires that all tolls and highway taxes be used for the highways, instead of siphoning off over 60% to non-highway programs.

I've seen this in a few places. Is there an original source - other than the budget itself - that shows this information?

http://www.unionleader.com/pda-article.aspx?articleId=15b3e62c-dbfc-4b2e-8f01-40e5e8b01b2c

Highway funding: Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

...

Thanks, Kevin!

[Mark]

Its these kinds of issues that are election killers for Lynch.  State Republicans ought to buy billboards near the tolls to remind voters of why they're paying $1 now.

FWIW, the only councilor who voted against this increase was a Democrat.