Public Toll Authority

A public toll authority is a semiautonomous government agency charged with the construction, operation and maintenance of highways under its jurisidcition. Typically established by a state's legislature with approval from the Governor (or legislative override of the Governor's veto), a public toll authority typically consists of a board of directors appointed by the Governor (and confirmed by the state legislature if the legislation or state's constitution requires legislative confirmation). Public toll authorities are often structured like a corporation with a Chairman or Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), a Board of Directors, multiple regional and functional managers, and employees such as toll collectors, maintenance crews, snowplow drivers, and engineers.

Public authorities are given wide latitude to sell bonds to finance roadbuilding and capital improvement projects, and collect tolls to pay off the bonds. Tolls collected on a highway overseen by a public toll authority can only be used within the public authority's jurisdiction for recurring operations and maintenance, repaying construction bonds, and financing capital improvements on facilities owned by the authority. To that end, the public toll authority is typically allowed to set toll rates without having to seek legislative approval to ensure the authroity's facilities are self-sustaining and therefore do not have to rely on funding through the traditional state and federal budget processes. Because the toll authority is authorized to sell bonds to private sector investors, highways assigned to such authorities can be built in a much shorter timeframe as they do not have to compete against other infrastructure projects for traditional federal and state appropriations and earmarks.