[arrosenberg]

I don’t understand the sarcasm. Comparable states like Texas and New York charge far more in tolls than California. Many states have far fewer roads (with less usage), or they underfund their road maintenance, don’t repair them, and then rely on federal funds to make emergency repairs after something critical breaks.

[tomrod]

The tolls are 1. Used to fix toll lanes, much more prevalent now than in the past 2. Payments to private companies who siphon the proceeds out of the area they services

Gas tax is much better in this regard, but all of these are pretty extortionary.

[throwaway48476]

Last I checked I think 60% was getting siphoned off to an LLC and only 40% of the toll was for the road.

[AnthonyMouse]

Not only that, tolls suck for privacy (de facto installation of ALPR cameras, database presumptively controlled by a private company selling the data to anyone with money), are a regressive tax on the poor, and are often used to implement "taxation without representation" by sticking the tolls near a state border to extract rents from people not eligible to vote against them.

New York has even taken to explicitly charging higher rates to out of state residents, which is of questionable constitutionality.

[hirako2000]

I would like to be able to say that in Europe, tolls are managed by the state, but they aren't.

[throwaway48476]

But think about all the poor politicians who would miss out on their kickbacks.

[datavirtue]

Driving is a privilege. You can walk on the walking road, thingy.

[tomrod]

Not when it is mandatory to function in society. Then, it is a necessary utility.

[AnthonyMouse]

Driving is a right because travel is a right and walking between two points separated by dozens of miles on a daily basis is about as reasonable a suggestion as "let them eat cake".

[sokoloff]

Travel is a right, including interstate travel, but Dixon v Love (among others) have held that personally operating a motor vehicle (“driving”) is a privilege rather than an inherent right.

You can take a bus, taxi, or airplane to travel.

[nobody9999]

>Last I checked I think 60% was getting siphoned off to an LLC and only 40% of the toll was for the road.

Which tolls on which road? At least where I live there's more than one toll road in the area.

[aydyn]

Underlying the sarcasm is the assertion that California is not fiscally responsible with its budget. Understand now?

[arrosenberg]

Nope, still don’t get it. We aren’t any more or less responsible than other states, just much bigger.

[sokoloff]

California is more responsible than Illinois or New Jersey, but there are plenty of states who are more responsible than CA.

[aydyn]

You sure about that?

[arrosenberg]

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[aydyn]

So you understood the point or would you like it explained again?

[arrosenberg]

Do you have an actual explanation or just low effort memes? Read the forum guidelines, thanks!