Editorial: A toll, toll world?

Sunday, April 1, 2007 | 7:33 a.m.

We generally support the recommendations made last year by a blue-ribbon transportation task force. The 17-member panel was appointed by then-Gov. Kenny Guinn. Its job was to come up with a plan to fill a $3.8 billion funding shortfall for road construction.

If a plan for covering the shortfall is not forthcoming from the current legislative session, necessary work on major projects will be delayed. This would almost certainly mean that the state's major thoroughfares will experience near gridlock by 2015.

Although most of the task force's recommendations, including raising the gasoline tax annually by the rate of inflation (with a cap of 4.5 percent), were sound, we remain skeptical of its support for PPPs, or public-private partnerships.

Essentially, PPPs allow for the wide- scale inclusion of private investment, construction and engineering in the building of roads - toll roads.

Susan Martinovich, director of the state Transportation Department, met with the Las Vegas Sun editorial board Wednesday. "We think toll roads are a component of public-private partnerships, but only for those roads that would add capacity," she said, meaning roads that people are used to driving for free wouldn't one day require a charge. At least at the start.

Under Gov. Jim Gibbons, who has vowed to not raise taxes or fees, the concept of PPPs is gaining momentum. But what is a toll if not a tax or fee? And tolls can, and do, rise a lot faster than state taxes or fees.

Martinovich cited the speed at which toll roads can be built. Because no federal money is involved, lengthy environmental assessments would not be required, she said. Fine, until the road is built and an expensive environmental issue arises that was not foreseen.

We believe transportation is too critical to be trusted to a profit-driven private company that could take shortcuts, go bankrupt or undergo a merger or a takeover, all of which could create nightmares for motorists.