US Senator Wants States to Have “More Flexibility” in Funding Highways

Omaha World-Herald gauges reaction in Nebraska and Iowa to the anticipated Trump infrastructure program, and learns that US Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) “met with Trump’s nominee to the Transportation Department, Elaine Chao, for an hour last month” to discuss infrastructure funding. The newspaper adds that Fischer “plans to roll out broader infrastructure proposals in the new Congress to give states more flexibility in addressing their needs.” Tolls get scant explicit mention in the article, which states, “[H]ighway officials and other experts note that they can work well on high-volume roadways like a bridge into New York City. But the financial numbers don’t really work to use tolls to finance, say, a stretch of Interstate 80 west of Grand Island.”