Peterson Calls on Turnpike Commission to Pull False, Toll-Funded Ads

Congressman Peterson calls on the Turnpike Commission to stop buying ads using toll revenue, that he calls a "misleading, disingenuous toll-paid media campaign, promoting the tolling of Interstate 80".

Among the claims of the ads are that

A lot of people think it’s gonna go to help mass transit systems … that’s not true. The toll money collected from I-80 users, many of them from out of state, will go strictly to impproving I-80 and fixing our bridges and roads.

But as we pointed out here, tolls on I-80 mean more funding for mass transit. While the Turnpike Commission can shift money between accounts, the lease agreement (and Act 44) specify that if the federal government does not approve I-80 tolling, then there will be less funding for transit.

Peterson adds,

The Turnpike even stated that toll money generated on I-80 will be used to ‘fix our bridges and roads’ across the state. However, the federal pilot program that they’re applying for instructs that all money generated from tolling be used to rebuild the interstate being tolled, not roads and bridges throughout the state, and certainly not for mass transit.