Paying Up (Toll-Road Sales)

Barron's ^ | May 8, 2006 | Andrew Bary

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

AMERICA'S TOLL ROADS, BETTER KNOWN for political patronage than for strong business and financial management, suddenly are hot assets. Already, foreign companies have paid rich prices for highways in Chicago and Indiana. And similar deals could be made over the next few years for the Ohio Turnpike, the Illinois Toll Highway, several toll roads around Houston, the Atlantic City Expressway and perhaps even the New Jersey Turnpike, America's best-known toll road, featured in the opening credits of The Sopranos. Private money potentially also could fund a multibillion-dollar toll bridge that would replace the aging and congested Tappan Zee span across the Hudson River, north of New York City.

The impetus toward privatization is partly financial and partly political. It's estimated that the nation might need to spend $92 billion annually just to maintain increasingly congested U.S. highways and bridges, let alone improve or expand them.

Gasoline taxes, the traditional method of funding highway repair and construction, are no longer sufficient for the job, and raising federal and state fuel levies has become political dynamite now that gasoline has jumped to $3 a gallon. If anything, lawmakers are looking to cut these taxes. The $1.8 billion purchase last year of the Chicago Skyway and the $3.8 billion deal last month for the Indiana Toll Road have opened the eyes of politicians, who didn't recognize that their toll roads could fetch such hefty sums. Both fetched a staggering 40 times trailing annual revenue and 60 times annual pre-tax cash flow. Just last week, the nine-mile Pocahontas Parkway, near Richmond, Va., was sold to Transurban, an Australian toll-road operator, for $611 million -- 60 times last year's toll revenue of about $10 million.

[sauron]

IIRC, President Bush (the elder) issued an executive order with a title like "Infrastructure Privatization" that would effectively allow interstates to be cut up and run by the highest bidder.

Imagine: Panasonic owns the I-15 between L.A. and Vegas, with a series of toll booths. They get the revenues in exchange for the responsibility of road maintenance.

I don't like it.

What's to prevent Mt. Rushmore from being leased out to Sony Corp. for maintenance? Nothing.

Find the E.O. It's in the United States Code Conressional Administrative News at your local library. Circa early 1990, or thereabouts. It actually allows public infrastructure--roads, parks, hospitals--to be privately run. The order actually specifies them.

Another symptom of a nation in decline? We can't even repair our own infrastructure. Now we know how the Egyptians felt about the pyramids their ancestors built, or the Italians about the collapsing colloseums, aqueducts, and roads their ancestors built.

Every empire has a chance to rise...and a time to fall. Get used to it, folks: We are presiding over the decline of our nation. May out children forgive us.

Oh, but I forgot: We didn't take the time to make children. Yeah. 42,000,000 babies aborted since Roe in '72, and meanwhile we now have 33,000,000 Mexicans doing the work our kids would have done. Another symptom of decline?

Nothing stranger than the truth.

Sauron

[socialismisinsidious]

"$92 billion annually just to maintain"


maybe instead of selling out our country we could get rid of all the guys that stand around and do nothing! and maybe they could actually fix the roads, rather than fixing them to fail.

guess that would require not making deals with the devil, I mean, the unions! and the bureaucrappers are never going to do that.

I keep wondering...at what point are people going to wake up and realize that we have hamstrung ourselves? maybe they never will.

[billbears]

I don't like it.

Why not? Because it's conservative? The Constitution of these United States does not provide for roads, rail, or practically any other infrastructure to be provided for by government.

Except for post roads. Nothing else. Every road, every railway that is not tied to delivering the post should be sold to the highest bidder immediately.

Another symptom of a nation in decline? We can't even repair our own infrastructure. Now we know how the Egyptians felt about the pyramids their ancestors built, or the Italians about the collapsing colloseums, aqueducts, and roads their ancestors built.

And yet before the War Between the States, this was standard operating procedure. A good first step in returning to a Constitutional limited government Republic

[pgobrien]

A sad, but accurate review.

[billbears]

What's to prevent Mt. Rushmore from being leased out to Sony Corp. for maintenance? Nothing.

BTW, you'll be able to provide the Constitutional basis for the wasteful spending to create the faces on Mt. Rushmore in the first place? Sell it off to the highest bidder.

[Rodney King]

I'm with you.

[elkfersupper]

I would rather every dirt path, road, street, highway, interstate in America be turned into a toll road than continue the selective criminalization of the users.

Maybe Panasonic would let us drive their interstate at the engineered speeds.

[patton]

You know, rodad construction/repair is incredibly wasteful. Look at how many workers are standing around.

If the private firms are going to maintain the roads, this could save $billions...

[BobL]

This is just WONDERFUL. All these rich companies are coming over here to run our highways, and we pay virtually nothing. Just great.

...and now to reality. The bottom line is that any government selling the operation of any public roadway is no different than a heroin junkie selling his car to finance his habit. Yea, you get a great high, but once you come down, you come down hard, without the car you needed to get to work (or the clinic), or in this case, with a roadway that virtually no can afford to drive on.

But what the heck, I've got enough money now to pay whatever these animals demand, and I have the benefit of getting all of the little people off of the road, so I don't have to deal with traffic.

So long...

[Prince Charles]

The politicians are simply whores turning tricks in every creative way they can. Everything will be sold off before too long.

[Clemenza]

When will we sell the public schools?

[ncountylee]

Align government salaries, pensions and workloads with private industry and there will be plenty of money available.

[JohnnyZ]

When will we sell the public schools?

We could only hope!

[Marius3188]

Executive order 12803
http://www.waterindustry.org/12803.htm

Covers pretty much everything.
Examples of such assets include, but are not limited to: roads, tunnels, bridges, electricity supply facilities. mass transit, rail transportation, airports, ports. waterways, water supply facilities, recycling and wastewater treatment facilities, solid waste disposal facilities, housing, schools, prisons, and hospitals.

Enjoy!

[NZerFromHK]

Reading the replies of many Freepers on this thread, the Green Party of New Zealand will welcome them with open arms had they been New Zealanders:

-----------------------------------------------------

NZ Greens Campaigns: Foreign Control

Foreign Ownership
View all Foreign Ownership docs in the Green Library
Related Campaigns: Just Trade
On this page: | News | Take Action | Useful Links

Aotearoa is for sale, and it’s going cheap on the world market, yet the Labour Government wants to make it even easier for foreign investors to buy up even more of our land, buildings and businesses. Meanwhile, company takeovers by trans-national corporations totaling billions of dollars each year far exceed the value of land sales. Most of our economy is now controlled from the boardrooms of London, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and New York. We want New Zealand to regain control of our economic destiny. And we want property prices down to realistic levels so that Kiwis can realise their dream of owning their own home or a bach at the beach and young farmers can afford to buy a family farm.

...

[Denver Ditdat]

...meanwhile we now have 33,000,000 Mexicans doing the work our kids would have done.

I believe that the "official" numbers for illegals are too low, but this is the first time I've seen an estimate this high. Got a link?

[sauron]

No link, but what I meant to say is that the first- and second- generation descendants of now-deceased illegals, PLUS the 11,000,000 officially acknowledged illegals here and alive in this country now, as is commonly accepted fact by every news outlet, outnumber our very own African-Americans, who number about 30M.

[sauron]

Executive order 12803 http://www.waterindustry.org/12803.htm

Hey man, thanks for the link. I didn't want everyone here to think I was making that stuff up. ;)

I encourage everyone to follow that link that Marius3188 kindly posted. Read it. Reflect upon the ramifications, and ask yourself--after checking abnormally libertarian tendencies--would it result in a stronger America?

Sauron

[1rudeboy]

Funny to watch the statists crawling out into the light.

[N. Theknow]

Don't sell the roads. Sell the naming rights.

Don't sue tobacco companies. Sell the right to sell only the highest bidding company's cigarettes in the state.

Sell the naming rights to airports.

Sell the naming rights to state and federal buildings, monuments, parks, rivers, lakes, harbors.

What the Hell, sell the naming rights to cities and states.

Welcome to the ATT-Washington, D.C. Verizon-Reagan International Airport. We hope you enjoyed your flight from Sprint-LAX out of Ford-Los Angeles, Bank of America-California. Please visit the GM-Smithsonian Museum and take in the tour of the Sony-Capitol and Wal-Mart Mint.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I haven't seen you on the TTC threads in awhile. Where you bin?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

When will we sell the public schools?

The sooner, the better.

[Toddsterpatriot]

If a private company wants to pay private workers to maintain the roads, the taxpayer savings should be huge.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

If you were in Venezuela and heard that the state-owned oil company (Petroleos de Venezuela) was being broken up and the pieces sold to companies such as Exxon-Mobil and BP-Amoco, would you say...

"This is just WONDERFUL. All these rich companies are coming over here to run our oil industry, and we pay virtually nothing. Just great.

"...and now to reality. The bottom line is that any government selling the operation of any state-owned oil firm is no different than a heroin junkie selling his car to finance his habit. Yea, you get a great high, but once you come down, you come down hard, without the car you needed to get to work (or to the clinic), or in this case, with gasoline that virtually no can afford to buy.

"But what the heck, I've got enough money now to pay whatever these animals demand, and I have the benefit of getting all of the little people out of the gas station, so I don't have to deal with the lines.

"So long..."

Just a question.

[Denver Ditdat]

That makes sense. Thanks!

[Mase]

It only required two posts for an article on the privatization of our highways to become an illegal immigration issue. LOL!

Like you said earlier, I remember a time when conservatives enthusiastically advocated for the privatization of public assets. Those were good days. Maybe the statists are right [for different reasons of course] and we are presiding over the decline of the nation.

[expat_panama]

Every road, every railway that is not tied to delivering the post should be sold to the highest bidder immediately.

How about roads on military bases-- or roads connecting military bases?   Fact is that the big pushes for federal highways were for defense.  The state highway system (Route 66 etc.) was right after WWI, and after WWII the interstate system came up with design specs based on requirements for moving missiles to sites.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

It only required two posts for an article on the privatization of our highways to become an illegal immigration issue. LOL!

It took 26 posts for illegal aliens to come up on another thread. At least it's over with early on this one.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Like you said earlier, I remember a time when conservatives enthusiastically advocated for the privatization of public assets. Those were good days. Maybe the statists are right [for different reasons of course] and we are presiding over the decline of the nation.

I would prefer that our highways continue to be funded by the gas tax and other goobermint fees. However, the costs of construction and maintenance are going up, and you can only tax such things as gasoline, automobiles, car parts, licensing, and registration so much before the taxes become oppressive by American standards. Furthermore, some highway and bridge projects would be budget busters with conventional funding (e.g., a replacement for the Tappan Zee bridge in the New York City area is expected to cost from 4 to 12 Billion dollars). So tolling and/or privatization are worth looking into in some cases.

[ItsForTheChildren]

This land is your land.
This land was my land...

[billbears]

How about roads on military bases-- or roads connecting military bases?

Roads on military bases, yes. Roads connecting military bases, the government needs to get about establishing contracts with private property owners. Did military installations not exist at the time of the Constitution? During the 70 years before the War?

The state highway system (Route 66 etc.) was right after WWI, and after WWII the interstate system came up with design specs based on requirements for moving missiles to sites.

So because the government takes it upon itself to build roads after one mistake and the ensuing war in an attempt to fix that mistake that makes the decision correct? Did the Framers not envision trade between the states? And yet the federal government did not take it upon itself until post 1861 to become involved in building of infrastructure. Perhaps you could explain why that is....

[expat_panama]

Roads on military bases, yes. Roads connecting military bases...

You're in favor of some roads not specifically mentioned in the constitution and not others.   So am I.   Now we agree that besides the explicit powers we can also include inherent and implied powers (read "screw around").  So now were together with the roads on bases, let's see what else we can do.

But first, I'm curious.  This thing you have with what the Framers intended at the "time of the Constitution" --you're saying you're not happy with the amendments or something?

[billbears]

You're in favor of some roads not specifically mentioned in the constitution and not others

No, I consider the roads on a military base to be part of that base, a federal installation.

This thing you have with what the Framers intended at the "time of the Constitution" --you're saying you're not happy with the amendments or something?

The Amendments are fine. At least the first ten. However when the modern federal government ignores them at whim, what's the use in having them?

[Seamoth]

Pretty devious of the state governments to do that. When they start hurting for money, they'll just cancel the contract. What the government giveth, the government taketh away.

[expat_panama]

I consider the roads on a military base to be part of that base, a federal installation...  

Hey, I'm on your side.  There's nothing wrong with having our tax dollars build roads on bases and we don't care if they're not postal roads like the constitution says.   You're just disagreeing with the military (who're risking their lives to protect you) as to whether the roads between the bases are as important as the ones on the bases.

Personally, I'd side with the military on this one, but if you can convince the Pentagon to back off then fine with me.

 ...Amendments are fine. At least the first ten.

We all like to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution the Founding Fathers did OK with and which we think they screwed up on.   So you liked slavery and you don't like the amendment that ended prohibition? [editor's note: I'm kidding ;-)]

However when the modern federal government ignores them at whim, what's the use in having them?

Maybe they figure that if you and I can ignore the constitution for roads on bases, then they can ignore it for their favorite projects too.  I'm at least half serious here; the thing is that either we accept the doctrine of inherent powers or we don't..

[Texas_Dawg]

Just one more reason the federal government should not be in the business of infrastructure.

Privatize everything. For the good of the country.