(Host) Vermont’s top transportation official says he’s willing to consider new ways of raising money to pay for road and bridge repair.
But Transportation Secretary Neale Lunderville says raising taxes is not one of the alternatives that the administration would accept.
Lunderville says borrowing money through bonds is one option, but it would have to be limited.
(Lunderville) "We don’t want to mortgage our future on a big bond. A big bond – $100, $200 million – is something much more than we can afford. And the governor has rightly said, `Let’s slow down and make sure we’re going to spend this money in the right area.”’
(Host) Lunderville also says highway tolls are possible. But he says the challenge is that some drivers might take other routes to avoid tolls and make conditions worse on side streets.
(Lunderville) "So tolling is tricky. But we need to look at it because maybe there is an option in the future. Certainly it’s worked in other states and people see that if they’re going to use the road they’re going to pay for it. So it makes a lot of logical sense to people.”
(Host) The House has proposed seriously considering bonding. But highway tolls aren’t being seriously proposed.