That is not completely accurate. Streets are primarily funded by excise taxes on gasoline. So yeah, the roads were never free, there is a usage tax on it. Electric vehicles change this dynamic to the point where we need to just charge for use directly.
The tech people are not going to live in the shitty apartments you should be building. People are not fooled, they see whats happening in SF. You need to stop playing games and build more apartments. This is not difficult.