In this article, the Toledo Blade reports on the recent bill signing of the Transportation and Jobs Budget. Read more about how this will help lift Ohio:
Rev up your engines. The speed limit on Ohio’s rural interstates is about to increase to 70 mph.
Gov. John Kasich today signed a two-year transportation/public safety budget that will take effect on July 1. In addition to increasing the speed limit, the budget authorizes the quadrupling of Ohio Turnpike debt, guaranteed by future toll collections, to help finance a backlog of highway and bridge projects across the state.
The Republican governor signed the bill at Tendon Manufacturing, a metal fabrication plant in the Cleveland suburb of Warrensville Heights.
He used his line-item veto pen sparingly. He did not touch language in House Bill 51 added by lawmakers to cement his assurances to northern Ohio that the vast majority of their toll dollars will remain in that region of the state and that tolls would be frozen in place for local commuters.
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The plan is designed to jump start construction of new interchanges, replaced bridges, and other road projects that might otherwise have to wait their turn for decades to be funded through normal highway funding sources, primarily gas tax revenue and federal dollars.
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Support and opposition crossed both party and geographic lines in the General Assembly. Some Republicans broke with their party to oppose the bill, particularly some in northern Ohio who worried the region would be double-taxed, paying both tolls and gas taxes, to rebuild other parts of the state.
Some Democrats, including some in northern Ohio, broke with most of their colleagues to support the bill as they saw an opportunity to bring life to stalled local projects.
You can read the entire article here.
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