the road tolls for thee-- or it probably won't be built

Maybe that's the idea?

Here's Marcus Green and Tom Loftus in the C-J on Kentucky's inability to prioritize-- and Baron Hill's refusal to consider user fees-- to pay for the fourth Ohio River bridge near Louisville...

House and Senate leaders were divided yesterday over how to resolve differences on a funding bill for the Ohio River Bridges Project. House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Okolona, said it's unlikely that lawmakers will consider the bill in a conference committee as the General Assembly heads into its final two days....

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., said federal transportation officials told him this week that considering tolls to help fund the project would cause work to stop for 18 months to conduct additional studies because tolls would be a change to the plan....

Hill is opposed to tolls for the project, and said he gave U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood an alternate proposal to help Kentucky pay for its $2.9 billion share of the project's cost. That plan includes bonds to be repaid by Kentucky's future federal highway funds. In all, Hill said his plan would pledge one-third of Kentucky's federal dollars over a 35-year repayment period....

Indiana would cover most of its portion of the bridges project's cost -- $1.1 billion -- from money it receives from leasing a toll road near the Michigan border to a venture between Australian and Spanish companies.