The Reid family traveled to Tulsa last weekend to attend a wedding.
As with all of our trips to Oklahoma, we spend a bit more than an hour—one way—on the Will Rogers Turnpike. Named in honor of the native Oklahoman—one of the nation’s most brilliant authors, satirists, and statesmen—the turnpike stretches from the Missouri border to Tulsa as part of I-44.
If you are traveling east or west on the turnpike, this 88-mile trek costs you $4. Day after day. Vehicle after vehicle. Four dollars after $4. The revenue this produces is mind-boggling.
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is the body that runs more than 600 miles of toll roads in the state—the second-most toll roads in the nation. It generates millions of dollars a year, but the OTA swears that it doesn’t make a profit.
Bonds are issued to pay for new roads and maintenance and the bondholders make money on the investment.
According to the authority’s website, the OTA “is similar to a public utility, providing a needed basic service at a fee that yields a return to its investors. The OTA must generate sufficient revenues to operate and maintain its roads at a high-quality level while covering the interest and principal payments owed to bondholders (investors) who have purchased its revenue bonds.”
Meanwhile, in Missouri, every car and truck in the world can travel for free. Be it I-70, I-55, or I-44, this state’s legislature balks at the thought of toll roads. No one makes any money off the millions of miles traveled via Missouri's highways. The state, bondholders, and anyone else who could help ease the strain on the state’s budget is cut off by the state’s backward approach to revenue generation.
Oklahoma also has among the highest alcohol taxes in the nation. As of 2009, its beer excise tax ranks 41st in the United States. Missouri comes in at No. 2. Also, when you buy a drink “on premises” in a bar or restaurant, there is a whopping 13.5-percent tax.
Oklahoma is a conservative state, just as Missouri is conservative. But when it comes to taxes, it’s a different story. It’s not the Bible Belt that drives Oklahoma to like “sin taxes”; it’s the Budget Belt, and right now it’s very tight.
As for Will Rogers, I doubt that he would mind that a toll road carries his name. He held a level-headed attitude toward taxes, favoring higher sales taxes over increasing income taxes. He also had no problem with inheritance taxes. You can read his quotes on this and many other subjects at willrogerstoday.com.
Here are two of my favorites:
“The whole trouble with the Republicans is their fear of an increase in income tax, especially on higher incomes. They speak of it almost like a national calamity. I really believe if it come to a vote whether to go to war with England, France, and Germany combined, or raise the rate on incomes of over $100,000, they would vote war.” (Feb. 27, 1931)
“The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it's in the way that it's spent.” (March 20, 1932)
Commentary by Alvin Reid
