Wyoming Tolling Authority Bill Gets Majority But Fails Introduction

A bill that could have started a process eventually leading to making Interstate 80 a toll road failed to win introduction in the Wyoming Senate on Tuesday, despite winning majority support.

Senate File 73 was sponsored by Senator Ogden Driskill [R-Campbell, Crook, Weston counties]. In his discussion of the bill, he said similar proposals have come before the legislature seven times, and that the funding shortfall for maintaining Interstate 80 is roughly at $1 billion merely to get the highway back to good standards, not excellent,

Driskill said I-80 is ''closed almost daily via some fashion." He said the interstate has averaged roughly 1,300 wrecks annually over the last five years.

Bill Sponsor: "It's Really A Truck Issue"

He said roughly 7,000 trucks and another 7,000 cars go down I-80 daily, with each truck doing damage equivalent to about $4,000, so "it's really a truck issue."

Driskill said the bill itself "does not create tolling on I-80." But that would be a three step process. The first step would be to allow WYDOT to develop a plan for I-80 tolling and submit it to the federal highway administration. Driskill conceded getting federal approval is "a tough order."

Questions have been raised in the past about whether the state can make I-80 a toll road because it is a federal interstate highway.. While there are tolls on some federal interstate highways, according to tollguru.com those stretches of road existed before becoming part of the interstate system and were "grandfathered'' in.

Indiana in 2025 asked for tolling authority on a stretch of I-70 within it's borders. The federal government has yet to respond to that request.

But Driskill said he would be hopeful of federal approval because "we have a friendly administration right now" at the Federal Highway Administration.

If the feds do were to sign off, there would be a multi-step process that would end in legislative approval for tolling. The whole process would likely take at least 5-6 years.

''If we don't do it now, when do we look at doing it?" Driskill said. ''And where do we look to come up with highway funding? We're 600 million short, and it's probably going to get worse."

Driskill also said residents of the entire state are paying to maintain I-80, even if the highway doesn't serve their areas.

But while the vote did win majority support at 18-12 with one absent, it fell short of the 2/3 majority needed for introduction of a non-budget bill during a budget session. It's entirely possible a similar proposal could come forward during next year's general session when only a simple majority would be needed.

Here is how the Senators voted on Senate File 73:

Ayes: Barlow, Boner, Case, Cooper, Crago, Crum, Dockstader, Driskill, Gierau, Hicks, Jones, Landen, Nethercott, Olsen, Pappas, Rothfuss, Schuler, Scott
Nays: Brennan, French, Hutchings, Ide, Kolb, Laursen, Love, McKeown, Pearson, Salazar, Steinmetz, Biteman