Thanks for letting us know the N.C. Turnpike Authority has opened bids totaling $584 million for construction of toll roads, which, by the way, no one wants. And thanks for adding the article's final paragraph in which you reported that the General Assembly agreed to give the turnpike authority $25 million a year to cover an expected gap between toll collections and the cost of repaying bonds and federal government loans to build and operate the Triangle Expressway.

What you neglected to tell readers is the real gem: that we, the taxpayers, are going to have to subsidize the turnpike authority for 40 (yes, that's forty) years before it may reach the point of paying for itself. This tidbit was buried in an article on the state budget located on a back page of The N&O a few weeks ago.

Nancy Campanile

Raleigh

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