Proposed federal budget could ease toll lane restrictions

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Trump administration has released its $4 trillion budget for 2018, and the transportation budget could be bolstered by toll lanes.

There has been a battle since toll lane construction got underway on Interstate 77.

Cintra, a private company based in Spain, would profit from the lanes, and now the contract is being reviewed for possible changes.

There are some restrictions on interstate toll lanes in the federal budget.

Mick Mulvaney held a muted press conference on Tuesday explaining and defending the budget, but the $200 billion infrastructure initiative never came up.

"(We should) allow states to assess their transportation needs and weigh the relative merits of tolling assets," it said.

“We, at the American Trucking Association, are not big fans of tolls,” said Bill Sullivan, who advocates for the association.

His group has worked with the president on infrastructure spending, but can't get behind the idea of adding tolls to existing highways.

“It's a regressive tax,” Sullivan said. “It hampers freight movement. It moves cars and trucks on secondary roads to avoid tolls.”

They don't support public-private partnerships like the lanes in Charlotte.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation weighed in on adding tolls to interstates.

“NCDOT has never tolled existing interstates, and has no plans to do so," officials said in a statement.

It remains to be seen if that will change if the budget is passed. Sullivan doesn't see the idea getting very far.

Cox Media Group