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GA Governor emerges as leader against privatized toll roads
Written by Terri Hall   
Friday, 13 January 2012
Link to Examiner article here.

Deal emerges as states rights hero against privatized toll roads
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
January 13, 2012

You gotta give him credit. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal learns quickly. He’s reversed his predecessor’s plans to privatize Georgia’s public roads in very controversial contracts known as public private partnerships (PPPs or P3s). Former Governor Sonny Perdue put a P3 program in place in 2009.

 

That was then and this is now.

After the explosive blowback from imposing tolls on EXISTING HOV lanes on I-85 in Gwinett County last October, Deal had to backtrack and slash toll rates by more than half in the first week. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) also increased the number of passengers needed to access the HOV lane from two to three, knocking many cars off the HOV lanes and into the general purpose lanes causing absolute GRIDLOCK on the free lanes. A not so ‘peachy’ public backlash followed in the Peach State. Deal pleaded with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to revert that requirement back to two passengers for motorists carpooling, but the FHWA rejected it.

Shortly after the fall-out over the I-85 HOV/HOT toll lanes ensued, GDOT pulled back a P3 for a project known as “West by Northwest” on I-75 & I-575. The P3 industry was completely taken aback. They can’t fathom an elected official with the audacity to reverse controversial, anti-taxpayer policies that they lobbied into place so easily in 2009.

January 12, Deal blasted P3s in his State of the State speech as “ill-conceived sell-outs” of state sovereignty. Finally someone gets it! The backlash to P3s, particularly the over-sized Trans Texas Corridor P3, in Texas has been no less vehement. However, Texas Governor Rick Perry, unlike Georgia’s Governor Deal, dug his heels in and continues to shove P3s down Texans throats.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 January 2012 )
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GA Governor calls public private partnerships "ill-conceived sell-outs"
Written by Terri Hall   
Friday, 13 January 2012
Link to article here.

New governor/new policy in GEORGIA: P3s 'unlikely in the near future'
By Chris Glynn
Infrastructure Investor
January 12, 2012
 
Georgia governor Nathan Deal characterised a late 2.3 billion toll road public-private toll road as an ill-conceived sell-out in a Tuesday speech. A GDOT spokesman added that PPPs in Georgia are 'unlikely in the near future'.
 
A damning rebuke of ‘West by Northwest’ as a ceding of fiscal selfhood was the highlight of a Tuesday speech by Georgia governor Nathan Deal. The state’s change of direction was underlined by a government spokesman who told Infrastructure Investor that public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the Peach State look “unlikely [...] in the near future”.
 
Speaking in his ‘State of the State’ address, Deal said he opposed a project that would jeopardise the “sovereignty” of Georgia for a “60 or 70” year period.
 
“Recently, we called a halt to the PPP project for the northwest corridor,” Deal said Tuesday. “I am and will be opposed to contracting away […] sovereignty for a 60 or 70 year period over a transportation corridor that is so vital to our future.”
 
Deal pointed out that he remained “committed” to improving the road, but stressed “there is a better way forward”.  
 
The West by Northwest project, a 40-mile toll road expansion in Atlanta, Georgia, along Interstate 75 and Interstate 575, was hailed as a “historic” PPP within the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT).
 
The would-be toll road underscored a state-wide effort to install a PPP programme that came to fruition under a host of pro-privatisation legislation passed in 2009.
 
Now, with the termination of West by Northwest, the future of that PPP programme – which had positioned the Peach State as a possible leader in private investment in public infrastructure in the US – is in doubt.
 
“We just are not sure about the future of PPPs,” answered GDOT spokesman David Spear, adding the potential for a PPP programme “in the near future […] unlikely”.
 
Spear went on to explain no GDOT personnel have been dismissed as a result of the demise of the PPP effort. Brandon Beach, chairman of the GDOT PPP board, is an elected GDOT member, while Gerald Ross, charged with operating the effort, is the top GDOT engineer.
 
Spear on Tuesday told Infrastructure Investor that a change in direction, “philosophically”, was behind the derailing of West by Northwest.
 
Deal became governor of Georgia in 2011. His predecessor, Sonny Purdue, had installed the PPP programme in 2009. The privatisation push seemed to be thriving under the auspices of then-GDOT commissioner Vance Smith, a one-time state senator.
 
But Smith resigned in September on the eve of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for West by Northwest amid a wave of criticism. GDOT was labelled as understaffed and suffering from high personnel turnover.  A month later GDOT, in an email statement, announced West by Northwest had been cancelled.
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Poll: People prefer tolls to taxes...WHAT?
Written by Terri Hall   
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Read it on Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/poll-claiming-preference-for-tolls-over-taxes-a-ruse#print#ixzz1i4UHctQ3

Poll claiming preference for tolls over taxes a ruse

By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
December 29, 2011

The Reason Foundation delivers again. One of the top think tanks that lobbies 24/7 to privatize our public infrastructure through toll roads, known as public private partnerships (or P3s), released a “scientific” poll that claims 55% support P3s and 58% of respondents prefer tolls to gas tax increases to pay for new roads. Guess what, both are tax increases, and most folks hedge their bets thinking they can avoid paying a toll but they can’t avoid a gas tax increase. So since they’d prefer NO tax increase at all, they answer they’d prefer tolls over gas tax increases on a survey where leading questions box you into their pre-determined trap.

Then, the survey specifically asks how to pay for NEW lanes, so it fails to address the problem we have in Texas where the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and local toll authorities are tolling existing highway lanes nor the fact that they’re using gas taxes, public bonds, vehicle registration fees, and even property taxes to build toll roads. Drivers will not be able to access those tax-funded lanes without paying a DOUBLE tax -- a toll, too. It’s taking away our freely accessible public highway system and making those who cannot afford to pay tolls (in addition to gas taxes) second class citizens relegated to stop-light-riddled access roads or surface streets to get around.

The Reason-Rupe poll also lacks a question that shows a comparison of the cost per mile to drive a toll road versus a freeway when gauging preferences for tolls versus gas taxes. It costs 1-2 cents per mile to use a gas tax funded road. Average toll rates for a public toll road in Texas range from 12 cents per mile to 25 cents per mile. When the road is handed over to a private corporation in a P3 like Reason Foundation advocates, toll rates jump up to 75 cents per mile, which is like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy. Giving respondents such information that reveals tolls will add $200-$300 PER MONTH or more to your commuting costs versus $100 more PER YEAR (on average) with an increased gas tax would make it a more legitimate measure of the public’s preferences for gas tax funded roads versus toll roads.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 31 December 2011 )
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Dallas transportation growth came with pains in 2011
Written by Terri Hall   
Friday, 30 December 2011
Link to article here.

Dallas area’s transportation growth in 2011 came with many pains
MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
Dallas Morning News
December 25, 2011

Dallas anchors the fastest-growing major metropolitan area in America, so it’s no surprise that transportation politics and policy figured large in North Texas’ top news stories of 2011.

It was the first full year of operations for DART’s 28-mile Green Line, a major expansion of its rail system, and the continued construction of the Orange Line, scheduled to open by 2013. The North Texas Tollway Authority will complete the eastern extension of the Bush Turnpike this month, even as it borrowed big to get its first toll road in Tarrant County under way this year, too.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the city of Dallas scored big this year, too, as they teamed with regional planners to craft an $800 million deal to build two new bridges over the Trinity River to complement the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, whose graceful white suspension cables have been teasing Dallas drivers for months as it nears completion in early 2012.
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Toll hikes on Dulles to pay for rail project
Written by Terri Hall   
Friday, 30 December 2011
Link to article here.

This is what happens when we open the door to unaccountable toll roads in the hands of unelected bureaucrats...toll rate hikes to pay for projects the toll payers will likely never use. It's a targeted tax on motorists in certain corridors to pay for completely unrelated political pet projects. The fraud is unbelievable!

Questions answered about Dulles Toll Road

By , Published: December 6

Users of the Dulles Toll Road will see an increase in rates starting Jan. 1, money that is pledged to go in part to maintain the roadway and in part to fund the new Metrorail line that will extend eventually to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County.

Rates at the main plaza will go up 25 cents next year. There is no change to the rates at the ramps.

On Tuesday evening, about three dozen people went to a Reston high school to ask questions of staff members of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees Dulles and Reagan National airports and the construction of the Dulles rail line.

At two dozen informational displays, authority staff members answered questions about improvements — including more overhead lighting, new guardrails and repaired toll booths — that have been made to the toll road. They also were asked about the increased toll rates and how the second phase of the Dulles rail line will be funded.

Some toll road users and watchdog groups are concerned that even higher rates will be imposed eventually — perhaps as much as $17 per round trip — to help pay for the 23-mile, $6 billion Dulles Metrorail line, known as the Silver Line.

Bert Hackney, 42, who lives in Vienna, had one big question about the second phase of the Dulles rail project: “When is it going to start?”

Answer: Construction on Phase 2 is likely to start in 2013.

He also wanted to know which of the six stations on the second phase of the project will have parking. The answer: Four will have parking; only the Reston Parkway and Dulles Airport stations will not.

Jack Boese, a retired lawyer who lives in Reston, said he is concerned that as toll rates rise, fewer people will take the road and more will clog other roads such as routes 50 and 7.

“They’re going to end up raising the toll rates to the point where the well-off business commuter whose time is really money will be the only one using the toll road and anyone with an option won’t,” Boese said. “Route 7 and Route 50 are going to become parking lots.”

The toll increases were agreed to years ago.

In 2009, the airports authority decided to raise toll rates in three stages. The first increase was in 2010, and another took effect this year. The 2012 increase will be the third.

Construction of the first phase of the Dulles project, which runs through Tysons Corner to Reston, is underway and is expected to be completed late next year.

Until recently, it was not clear how the second phase of the Dulles rail project, from Wiehle Avenue to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County, would be paid for. Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood helped broker a deal on financing the estimated $2.8 billion Phase 2 project.

Nearly 54 percent of the cost of the entire project is expected to come from Dulles Toll Road users. An additional 16 percent is to come from federal grants, 4.9 percent from Virginia, 4.1 percent from the airports authority, and the rest from Loudoun and Fairfax counties.

The counties have said they are trying to pursue public-private partnerships to help pay for stations and parking garages.

Phase 2 of the rail project became embroiled in controversy over whether to place the station at Dulles Airport aboveground or underground. Eventually, the authority’s board agreed that the station would go aboveground, the less costly option.

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NTTA board members want taxpayers to foot legal bills for FBI investigation
Written by Terri Hall   
Friday, 30 December 2011
Link to article here.

This article says it all...corruption from top to bottom at these unelected, unaccountable toll authority boards. Now they want the taxpayers to pay for their personal legal bills for the FBI investigation into their conflicts of interest!

NTTA agenda item seeks legal payments for board members
MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
Dallas Morning News
December 17, 2011

At least one North Texas Tollway Authority board member is asking his colleagues to agree to spend public money on his legal fees in an ongoing matter.

The revelation came late Friday in a board agenda published in advance of the final meeting for 2011, scheduled for next Wednesday.

The one-line mention, agenda item 31, is posted for discussion in open session. It reads: “briefing and possible approval of a director’s request for indemnification under 366.258.”

That number refers to a section of Texas law that says an authority “may indemnify one or more of its directors or officers for necessary expenses and costs, including attorney’s fees, incurred by the directors or officers …”
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