Are you freaking kidding me?!

From WRAl: "Area Mayor Proposes Adding Tolls To Northern Part Of I-540"

Ok, this is starting to get personal - tolls for ALL sections of I-540. Umm, how is this legal? The road has been PAID FOR and built as a state funded highway, how can it be possible to assess tolls on a PAID road?! (oh, yeah that's right, our governor who hasn't done a lot in his 2 terms, signed a bill last month to allow it) Next they're going to charge retroactive tolls for all that live along the I-540 corridor who've been using it. I can see it now... a bill comes to our mailbox for a retroactive toll of $5,000 for using 540, 5 days a week for 2 years.

"A Wake County mayor says tolls on Interstate 540 are just plain necessary, and everyone ought to bear the burden of getting the road finished and paid off."

Umm, how about not? We've born the burden with our tax dollars to build 540 thus far. TAX DOLLARS. Money we did not CHOOSE to pay for the roadway, but were REQUIRED.

"We in the south from our taxes have paid for the north part of the loop," said Sears. "Let's ask them to help pay for our part of the loop in the south by tolling the existing roads." (Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears)

Umm, correct me if I'm wrong, but we've all paid the taxes for the road and are all still paying the taxes to fund the completion of the road. And how about at least 2/3 of your population have JUST moved there in the past 1-2 years from the northeast?! Hmm? How about that? They sure the heck haven't paid out taxes for the entire project!

"That way, Sears said, construction could start sooner and the roads would be paid off faster. However, mayors in the north, like Wake Forest's Vivian Jones, said it's a new idea that complicates an already complicated issue.
"I'm not immediately opposed to it, but I really don't embrace it either," said Jones. "I'm certainly willing to talk about it. This is a regional problem and we need to work on it in a regional way."

I'm trying to gather my thoughts to write to Mayor Jones this afternoon. Right now I'm just a bit too flustered and *SO GLAD* that we did not move to Holly Springs. We choose our northern county location because of I-540 and the fact that we could use it any time we needed.