City
Study: Regional Tolling is "Fair to Low-Income Households"
A new UW study finds that tolling the region's highways (an issue that's in the news lately because of the likelihood that the SR-99 tunnel, the new SR-520 bridge, and the I-90 bridge will be tolled) would be "fair to low-income households."
According to the study, "if 12 major highway segments in the Puget Sound region were tolled with a $1 one-way flat rate, and the impacts were assessed on all low-income households in the region combined, their average cost would be $235 per year or 1.5 percent of income."
The report also concludes that although tolling is regressive---everyone pays the same amount to use a toll road, no matter how much they make---it is "significantly less regressive than sales or gas taxes" and ends up reducing congestion because people choose not to drive on tolled roads or not to use them when tolls are highest.
The study continues:
Read the whole study here.
According to the study, "if 12 major highway segments in the Puget Sound region were tolled with a $1 one-way flat rate, and the impacts were assessed on all low-income households in the region combined, their average cost would be $235 per year or 1.5 percent of income."
The report also concludes that although tolling is regressive---everyone pays the same amount to use a toll road, no matter how much they make---it is "significantly less regressive than sales or gas taxes" and ends up reducing congestion because people choose not to drive on tolled roads or not to use them when tolls are highest.
The study continues:
If tolls are to reduce congestion (with less pollution as an accompanying benefit), they must give residents who drive the most heavily trafficked roads and bridges incentives to use them more efficiently, whatever their incomes may be. All pricing mechanisms discriminate between those who desire a good or service and those who do not. Tolls are no different. Generally speaking, economic theory suggests that the broader social goals of poverty reduction and income redistribution are best pursued via tax, income transfer and labor market policies, not by suppressing prices’ function of allocating scarce resources.
Read the whole study here.
