A proposal to grant the Navajo Nation toll-collection privileges to help maintain U.S. 89 is an idea that should be booted down the road.
It is fraught with too many problems.Navajo and Hopi officials are unhappy with Arizona officials for not improving a dangerous stretch of roadway that runs through the reservation. They may have a point, though highway engineers say the most hazardous part of U.S. 89 in the region is not actually on the reservation.
The leaders have submitted a proposal to install toll booths along the roadway and to use revenue collected to construct a stretch of divided highway.
Debate aside (the stretch should be improved as much as reasonably possible) the four key issues related to toll collection are road ownership, open access to the Grand Canyon's North Rim, deciding who should pay the tolls and setting legal precedent.
U.S. 89 was built by taxpayers, most of whom are not American Indian. Those who cross the reservation and countless others have paid for the roadway and pay for its maintenance through their taxes. They should not have to pay again through tolls.
It would be unfortunate to discourage travel to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon through deterrent caused by toll roads.
Relating to the first issue is the question of who would be required to pay tolls. Some encourage exempting only Navajos and others all reservation residents. Those residents - tribal members or not - do not have any more road ownership than any other constituency through which a state or federal highway passes.
And that leads to the ultimate reason to deny the request: precedent. If the Navajos are permitted to assess and distribute tolls, who would be next? Could cities or counties unhappy with road maintenance within their boundaries make the same claims?
Roadways such as U.S. 89 are built and repaired from general transportation funds and not small special-interest accounts funded by toll collection. That is the way the system should remain.