Other options for raising road money to arise in the capital

Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Garth Dull doesn't think much of toll roads.

Sure, there might be a place for debate about them in the state Legislature. He just doesn't like them.

"Never been a fan of them," says Dull, who 12 years ago retired as director of the Nevada Transportation Department. "Toll roads to me are just making somebody pay twice. If you really need a new facility, raise taxes."*

No, for Dull (pronounced "dole"), one of the biggest solutions to Nevada's road crisis is something called the distance- weight tax. Done right and within reason, estimates are that such a tax - applied to large trucks traveling into and out of the state - could raise as much as $200 million a year .

So why don't you hear much about it?

You're about to. But not from Dull. From Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-Las Vegas, who is putting together a package of proposals he says should help the state find the funding it will need over the next 10 years or so to make up for the $3.8 billion highway funds shortfall.

You hear Atkinson talk and start to wonder: Is the sky really falling?

"Well, we really are at the end of our rope when it comes to transportation," Atkinson says. "There is no doubt about that."

So here's an outline of what is likely to arise in Carson City over the next few weeks, aside from raising money with toll roads :

And it's something that former transportation director Dull can talk about chapter and verse. The tax, Dull says, is more fair than anything we have now, because it taxes heavy trucks in proportion to the amount of damage they do to our roads. "It's one way for everybody to pay their fair share," he says.

According to Dull, the current cost for roads, based on a gas tax, breaks down like this: Cars cover about 75 percent of the cost, heavy trucks about 25 percent.

With a distance-weight tax, the split would be closer to 60 percent cars and 40 percent trucks. "That's how it should be," he says.

Elevated trains? Light rail? How about subways?

"We'll be open to anything," he said.