As I was scanning the title linked Toledo Blade article, this made me laugh:
(Ken Blackwell's Spokesman) Mr. (Carlo) LoParo responded that eliminating tolls is "an uninformed opinion" because there is no replacement source for the revenue.
Despite what Ohio Legislators did in 1993 to create a way to continue to collect tolls as discussed back in June, the original intent was for the Turnpike to become a non-toll road.
Flashing back to the 1940's...
Ohio's leaders envisioned a nonstop span across the state superior to anything that had ever been built. In 1949, the legislature authorized creation of the Ohio Turnpike Commission. To fund the new superhighway, the Commission issued $326 million in revenue bonds. The Turnpike would be the biggest construction project in Ohio's history to that time.
Ground was broken on October 27, 1952. At peak construction, 10,000 workers were on the job and the landscape became dotted with more than 2,300 bulldozers, graders, loaders and other machines. Building the 241 mile highway took only 38 months.
On October 1, 1955, the massive project was completed. Hundreds of eager motorists were lined up to be among the first to drive nonstop all the way across Ohio. Opening Day traffic totaled 44,000 vehicles. The Turnpike was in business.
It does not appear that they envisioned a never ending cash cow for gubernatorial candidates to consider trying to sell or lease to foreign companies...Granted government actually following thru on promises it has made to voters is becoming more and more rare but I think the original intent is very clear.
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2 comments:
Carlo is certainly not known for his intelligence....
Blackwell is just flat out wrong on this one.
I can see a valid reason for not discontinuing the tolls though, as long as the turnpike continues to expand/improve.
We still need an additional lane from Stony Ridge to the Indiana line, for example.
And then maybe we could build a fourth lane in each direction, to separate the truck and car traffic. But that would make way too much sense…
Maybe we should sell/lease it to a foreign government, so that they can rape and pillage it for say, 30 years and then, hand it back to us to rebuild.
What a clever idea Ken, you get the credit for thirty pieces of silver and some very short-term “glory,” and Ohio gets the royal bone. . .
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