Toll road proposal reviewed

The Assembly Transportation Committee heard testimony Thursday on a Senate-approved plan that would establish a framework for toll road construction in Nevada.

SB206 would mandate strict oversight over public-private partnerships that finance toll road construction. No currently existing public highway could be converted into a private toll road, said Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, the bill's primary sponsor.

"We want to preserve the already paid-for-by-tax-dollar roads that we have in our state," Lee said. "We don't want to give these roads up. Taxpayers paid for these things, they deserve these roads and they belong to them."

Lee said the bill protects the state from being taken advantage of in any public private partnerships that might be formed, adding such companies "would have to go through another level of responsibility to the state."

Under the measure, the state would still own the roads. The bill also would create a commission that would include the governor or lieutenant governor, state Transportation Board members, attorney general, controller, legislators and others who would determine how excess toll revenue would be spent. Potential contracts with private companies eventually would expire and the state would retain all toll revenue after that.

Paul Enos of the Nevada Motor Transport Association endorsed the bill, saying it doesn't authorize toll road construction and "sets safeguards and parameters in place that show that Nevada isn't ripe for the picking for these people to come and take advantage of us."

Assemblyman Joseph Hardy, R-Boulder City, proposed an amendment that would allow for the U.S.93-95 Boulder City bypass toll road demonstration project. Hardy said motorists still would have free access to the highways and that environmental impact studies already have been conducted.

"It has everything except the money," Hardy said. "We don't have the money, and that's where the public-private partnership comes in to get capital from out of state to come into Nevada. Boulder City is donating the land for that and you get a new, safer road."