Many States are in favor of expanding the toll pilot programs (both the Interstate Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program and the Value Pricing Pilot Program) and giving the States flexibility to decide how to incorporate tolls into their highway programs. Restricting the number of eligible States or projects, limiting the types of projects for which tolls may be utilized (e.g., only for additional lanes), restricting tolls to congestion relief or automated-only lanes, and limiting the uses for which toll revenues may be applied will unnecessarily constrain State and regional agencies and their private sector partners in applying innovative solutions to transportation problems. Decisions regarding the advisability of using tolls to finance a proposed project are best left to the local level, rather than being predetermined by the Federal government.
Comments were also received encouraging expanding toll credits. Toll credits allow States to count toll revenues collected as part of the non-Federal match they need to receive Federal funding. Current law prevents States from taking toll credits for toll roads that have been constructed with Federal funding, regardless of how little funding was involved. [352]