1. Some of the toll companies are American.
2. The politicians only get to sell the rights once and the proceeds from that don’t come from the taxpayers. It’s not a continuing income stream that they can regulate and increase when they need to meet a budget hole that they created.
3. I fully expect them to waste the one-time payment - but once it is gone there will be no more and they can’t stealth-increase a tax they couldn’t levy. This is unlike gas tax, road tax, registration and plate fees, etc.
4. The toll levels can be set by state or local governments (which don’t get the power to tax them). Check out how the North Texas Tollway Authority works.
“1. Some of the toll companies are American.”
Not the big players - I have yet to see an American-only proposal. The big players like (Australian) Cintra will drag along Williams Brothers because they have to...but it is Cintra that cleans up on these deals.
“2. The politicians only get to sell the rights once and the proceeds from that don’t come from the taxpayers. It’s not a continuing income stream that they can regulate and increase when they need to meet a budget hole that they created.”
Why not? The politicians can tax ANYTHING they want. If they want to slap toll road operators with taxes, starting with property taxes based on revenue stream, they sure as hell can tax them.
“3. I fully expect them to waste the one-time payment - but once it is gone there will be no more and they can’t stealth-increase a tax they couldn’t levy. This is unlike gas tax, road tax, registration and plate fees, etc.”
Tell that to anyone in Texas that has ‘paid off’ their house.