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This article covers testimony given to the Virginia legislature by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Secretary Sean Connaughton regarding the consequences of the court’s ruling that VDOT’s tolling authority is unconstitutional. In May 2013 a circuit court in Portsmouth ruled that the General Assembly exceeded its authority by giving the state highway department broad power to set toll rates. This ruling has dire impacts to two existing public-private partnership contracts for the Midtown and Downtown tunnel projects according to Connaughton. Overall it could cost at least $700 million and potentially jeopardize other toll projects. People local to the areas in which the tolls would be leveraged are outraged by the tolls as they feel they are already paying for the road through the public funding that is going to the projects. The state appealed the circuit court ruling, so the case will be decided in the Virginia Supreme Court.