I think that is the disconnect in these conversations. I live in Washington DC (inside the city) so I suppose what you think of as highways are what I think of as local roads. I just don't see how a private company could own and maintain them. And everything is new/developing here so they aren't old roads. Some highways were built less than a decade ago and were huuuuuge projects.

Yes contractors are hired to do it but the "government" owns and operates/is responsible. 

These no-taxes scenarios seen to work for snap populations but I don't see how it works somewhere you almost a million people coming through daily.