While Oklahoma considers getting rid of its tolls, next-door-neighbor Arkansas is considering building toll roads.

Some Oklahoma lawmakers are asking if there's any end to tolls in their state. Reps. Chris Benge of Tulsa and Kris Steele of Shawnee asked for a study looking into making the state's toll roads free. An Oklahoma House subcommittee took up an interim study examining the issue.
Benge compared turnpikes to the Eveready Bunny: "They are going to keep going and going and going unless we do something to stop them." Benge plans to pursue legislation to do just that. The Oklahoma Transportation Authority has an outstanding debt of $1.3 billion as a result of an expansion approved in 1998. That debt is scheduled to be retired in 2028, and at that point, the roads could become toll-free, according to Holly Lowe, the Authority's acting director and chief financial officer.
The toll system has not become debt-free because it has continually expanded, she said.
Lowe said if more of the state's revenue from fuel taxes went to the Department of Transportation, there would be less need for toll roads. Nearly a quarter of the fuel tax revenue collected in Oklahoma, she said, goes to non-highway programs.
In Arkansas, the state Highway Commission is considering the results of a consultant's report that, among other things, recommends building toll roads. Wilbur Smith Associates was hired last year to suggest funding options for more than a dozen highway and bridge projects on the state's wish list. According to published reports, commissioners were most receptive to a proposal that would allow half a dozen of them to be built as toll roads.
Commissioner Jonathan Barnett said the state should build a toll road system before using bonds to build other roads. The first projects on the consultant's list were a North Belt Freeway in central Arkansas and a Bella Vista bypass in the northwestern part of the state. The plan also called for building toll roads at U.S. 63 from Interstate 55 to Jonesboro and U.S. 71 from Fort Smith to Interstate 40, and two new Mississippi River bridges.
The consulting firm has been asked to provide more information on the first two projects that would use a combination of bonds, toll roads, federal loans, and existing revenues.
If the commission does decide to pursue toll roads, it will be a while. General revenue bonds would be used to build the roads, and toll revenues would pay off those bonds. But bond issues require voter approval. To get the law changed to issue them without voter approval, the commission would have to get the state Legislature to change the law - and they don't meet again until 2003.