A recent newspaper account detailed the need for our Commonwealth to raise additional funds to repair bridges and complete other necessary highway maintenance, with one possible solution being the installation of toll booths on Route 93 in the future.

While I’m not thrilled at the prospect of forking over hard-earned dollars for the privilege of crawling along at, say, 15 or 20 miles per hour on an already traffic-choked highway, the article nonetheless does provide food for thought as to how we could raise much-needed funds here in our own beloved hometown.

If this toll booth idea is considered such a great solution by the Commonwealth, why don’t we do the same right here in Kingston?

It’s such a simple suggestion that I wonder why no one has thought of it before. We should install toll booths at every entrance to Kingston and charge motorists 75 cents per car to traverse our highways. Town residents, of course, would be exempt from the tolls and would be waved through with the equivalent of an EZ Pass. But those out-of-towners who clog our roads and use all of our services without having to pay a single, red cent for the upkeep and maintenance of our community would hereafter be charged for the privilege of driving through this little slice of Heaven – and we can collectively begin to watch our property taxes drop!

When you contemplate the sheer volume of traffic to and from the Cape alone, it’s enough to make a cash-starved town drool in fiscal anticipation.

Think about it. New Hampshire charges tolls to drive on their roads (granted, there is no state sales or income tax, so it could be argued that they have to earn money somehow). And then there is the "Welcome to where the world ends" Maine Turnpike. Connecticut, though, arguably the wealthiest of the New England states, charges to traverse sections of Route 95, and they don’t even need the money! New Jersey extracts a fee for the privilege of driving their major thoroughfare; and not to be unkind, but they’re not exactly providing scenic vistas in return. We could also point to our own Massachusetts Turnpike, particularly west of Springfield, where one pays for the right to drive for hours through the middle of nowhere. Anyway, you get the idea. All these places get away with "highway robbery." Why shouldn’t Kingston?

We could place toll booths at Exit 10, Route 3 southbound; Exit 8 northbound, Route 106, Route 27, Route 3A, and maybe even along Bay Farm and Route 27, as well as the new Route 44 (that one you can file under the "close enough" category). And we could even build one along Parting Ways Road to catch the scofflaws who think they can bypass this revenue enhancement system by driving over through Carver and West Plymouth.

What’s the average traffic count in Kingston? Somewhere around 60,000 vehicles per day? Factor in the Cape traffic and you probably come closer to 70,000 on average.

Take out the Kingston drivers and you probably have about 45,000. So, for the mere pittance of 75 cents per car, that’s somewhere around $33,750 a day. After expenses (how much can it cost to hire some toll collectors and build some booths?) that should net $30,000 a day, or nearly $11 million per year.

Consider the economic benefits to the town. This represents nearly a third of our annual budget, and at what sacrifice to us? Sure, there’s the matter of getting through a few layers of red tape at the state and federal levels, but after that, it’s just a dozen or so toll booths and some part-time workers. There’s really no downside. Traffic in Kingston is already hideous, so how much worse could this possibly make it? And for those occasional "I’ll show them; I’m not paying even if I have to drive over to Middleboro to avoid Kingston" types, who needs them anyway? We’ll just have a few less cars on the streets.

Think about it, folks. The high cost of living here has taken its toll (pun intended) on all of us. This may just be the beginning of the end of our town’s fiscal woes. And, in the (highly unlikely) event that this becomes reality, don’t forget that you heard it here first.

Until next month…