Here is a guest comment from Todd Spencer, Executive Vice President, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association:

For far too long, tolling authorities like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission have operated in the shadows – if not totally behind closed doors. The isolated appointees to these authorities are largely unaccountable to the public, seeing their long-term appointments as a blank check to push for double or triple digit percentage toll increases on what seems like an annual basis. These toll increases amount to nothing more than tax increases on mobility, directly impacting small business truckers and other motorists as they work to keep our economy rolling.

The impact of the Port Authority’s recently approved toll increases on trucks clearly shows how these toll increases will impact the economy. Before the most recent toll increase, it cost a truck $40 to cross the George Washington Bridge into New York City; by 2015, it will cost that same truck $90 – a 125 percent increase! Toll rates for cars are also set to go up to historic levels over the next few years, and New York isn’t the only place where major toll increases went into effect in 2011 – Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other states have followed suit. In most cases, these increases went through despite the solid and united opposition from truckers and motorists.

When small business truckers, who bring home less than $40,000 a year and generally end up paying most tolls out of their own pockets, read about even toll collectors making six figure salaries right after another toll increase goes into place, they want to know where their hard earned money went – especially when tolling authorities are using the condition of the roads and bridges under their management as justification for the increase. Where did they spend prior toll dollars?

They also start to wonder if the toll authorities, who are supposed to be looking out for the interests of the truckers and commuters using the road or bridge, are looking out for their own interests and using a process for considering toll increases that basically guarantees their approval. How do these tolling authorities expect bridge and highway users to afford these massive increases? Pricing out small business truckers from using roads and bridges to haul freight just does not pass the “just and reasonable” test, it does not pass the common sense test.

The legislation introduced by Senator Lautenberg and Congressman Grimm is common sense legislation that puts in place necessary motorists protections that will take away the blank check given to tolling authorities by requiring the development of “just and reasonable” standards for toll increases. It will also ensure that revenues raised through tolls are directed towards the roads and bridges that truckers and other motorists expect them to be directed towards. Toll-supported roads and bridges should not be seen by tolling authorities or other policy-makers as an endless pot of cash at the end of the rainbow that can be used to fund unrelated transportation projects, economic development projects, or the purchase of new offices for the tolling authority at above market prices (something San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission recently did). It also takes the first step towards shining much-needed light onto the process used by tolling authorities across the country. Tolling authorities need to show clear justification for increases, not simply telling truckers and other motorists to “trust us.”

Small business truckers, who make up more than 90percent of all our nation’s motor carriers, see tolls as nothing more than taxes. Congress is rightly focused on keeping taxes as low as possible, and it should follow the same mantra when it comes to tolls.

AAA applauds the action of Congressman Michael Grimm (R-NY) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to protect motorists from unreasonable transportation fees and ensure tolling revenue is not diverted to non-transportation related purposes. The, “Commuter Protection Act,” would restore much needed federal oversight to prevent tolling authorities from diverting tolls on Interstate bridges and tunnels to non-transportation related purposes and strengthens public accountability. It is important to note that Rep. Grimm and Sen. Lautenberg are not asserting a new federal role with this bill - but rather, they are simply positioning the U.S. Department of Transportation to its rightful, prior role as arbiter in evaluating the affect toll increases have on our national highway system.

While it is true that actions of a specific tolling agency in the Northeast have precipitated the introduction of this legislation, the interest is truly national in scope. Whether you support or oppose tolling - especially the expansion of tolling on federal highways - all should agree that revenues must stay within the transportation program and that fee increases should be done in a careful manner with particular attention to the impact on motorists’ safety and mobility as well as on the efficient movement of freight.

One of the questions posed this week is, “What standards should determine the cost of tolls?” Current law defines that to be, “just and reasonable.” Many groups may have their own differing definition of what exactly “just and reasonable” means. I hope that USDOT, as outlined in this legislation, would enlist the opinions of all interested stakeholders to help them properly define this standard. The standard is key to protecting system users as well as the federal role in transportation while at the same time allowing for the occasional facility rate increase intended to fulfill a specific transportation-related need.

We can all agree that tolling is not going away anytime soon. In fact, interest in tolling is likely to grow in scope as our nation’s transportation funding needs increase and our travel and freight demands require a more properly maintained and efficient system. However, when tolls are implemented, AAA believes that certain safeguards need to be in place. I view the legislation of Rep. Grimm and Sen. Lautenberg as a step in the right direction to further protect the interest of the transportation user and help ensure that tolls are implemented in a transparent and economically justified way that benefits the nation’s transportation system as a whole.

The United States Constitution provides adequate federal oversight, regarding state and local tolling measures. For example, the Interstate Commerce Clause prevents state and local authorities from using tolling to impose undue burdens on the flow of people and goods between states, and the Equal Protection Clause prevents the imposition of measures that would discriminate against individuals or classes of users of transportation systems.

Given the growing scarcity of resources for transportation investment and operations, the hand of the federal government should be lighter, not heavier, as states and metropolitan regions attempt to develop revenues for investment in their transportation facilities and systems.

Whether tolls are "just and reasonable" is a public question about which state and local officials can make appropriate decisions and for which they are ultimately held accountable by their constituents. Federal officials have no greater capacity or wisdom to make these decisions, than do state and local leaders.

The interests of transportation investment and operations would be better served, if Congress, in the current consideration of federal surface transportation reauthorization, were to remove the current prohibition on tolling the Interstate Highway System. In the current fiscal environment, states and localities should have available to them the felxibility to raise investment capital, by implementing tolling and highway user charges, if they wish to do so and if their local constituents are supportive of such measures.

It is not the role of the federal government to require tolls or to impose them directly on local communities. That is a decision best left to state and local governments. Instead, the federal government should be permissive, by removing, or at least reducing, current federal barriers to tolling and direct user charges on key portions of transportation systems. This is not the time, as state and local governments try to meet their responsibilities of maintaining transportation investments and operations in an uncertain fiscal environment, to increase federal regulation. Rather, federal barriers to state and local initiatives and innovations should be reduced.

The “Commuter Protection Act” introduced by U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and U.S. Representative Michael Grimm (R-NY) is unnecessary. While we acknowledge the good intentions of Sen. Lautenberg and Rep. Grimm, we believe the proposed Act would have a number of unintended consequences.

Under this Act, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation would be given authority to review and regulate tolls for passage over or through any bridge or tunnel on any Federal-aid highway.

The Act would add an unnecessary layer of federal oversight in what is largely a state and local process. In addition, it may constrain public and private investment in infrastructure at a time when Congress is looking to encourage further transportation investment. Most toll agency boards in America are composed of appointed or elected officials and these boards review and approve toll rate increases and provide robust oversight of agency investments and operations. This structure makes these boards attentive to and accountable to local taxpayers and voters. The addition of a federal review and approval process takes decision making away from the state and regional authorities that are ultimately accountable for the level of transportation investment and its consequences on local quality of life and regional economic competitiveness. Adding the U.S. Transportation Secretary as yet another layer of oversight would also introduce uncertainty and delay into the toll rate setting process. This would have an unsettling effect on credit ratings which would increase the cost of capital and make it harder for toll agencies to borrow money for much needed capital improvements, maintenance and other essential services.

The Act would interfere with the most vital and powerful engines of innovation and funding in surface transportation. Toll agencies are among the few institutions in transportation that provide robust funding to support the current and future mobility needs of their customers because they manage a continuing revenue stream (tolls) that is not subject to the annual appropriations process of either Congress or state legislatures.

The federal revenue stream to support surface transportation, by contrast, is inadequate and unsustainable. Congress has not increased the federal fuel tax since 1993. Congress has ignored the advice of both commissions it created under SAFETEA-LU to find new revenues to support the grossly underfunded U.S. transportation system. And this Congress, with the exception of a very few members, has aggressively resisted any attempt to increase taxes or other revenues to support surface transportation. As a consequence, it has failed to pass a comprehensive new surface transportation bill to replace SAFETEA-LU which expired more than two years ago.

In light of these conditions, we believe Congress should not interfere with the efforts of local and regional toll agencies to advance mobility and provide for their own funding needs. Our years of experience suggest that these complex financial decisions are best made at the state and local level. Local agencies and elected officials are generally better able to navigate the unique needs and requirements of transportation infrastructure investments like roads, bridges and tunnels. Federal officials serve best when they address the broader set of national needs and concerns surrounding transportation public policy.

We stand ready to work with Congress to design laws that will strengthen and support U.S. transportation infrastructure and its capacity to serve our nation’s economic competitiveness and quality of life in a safe and reliable manner.