Posted on 05/07/2017 9:07:44 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A challenge to the state's I-77 toll lane was denied by the N.C. Court of Appeals today.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel upheld a lower court, which had dismissed a citizen group's attempt to stop the public-private project in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties.
This was a big political issue in the 2016 governor's race, costing Pat McCrory a lot of votes in those counties.
As a legal issue, the opposition doesn't seem to have much gas.
I-77 from Charlotte to Mooresville is a traffic nightmare. To address the congestion, the state's DOT in 2014 signed a contract with a Delaware LLC called Mobility for what it called the I-77 HOT Lanes Project.
You can see all the details of the project here. Here's a summary. Simply, the private contractor builds two new lanes in each direction along 26 miles of the highway (except just one additional lane in the Lake Norman area). The state's share of the cost is $90 million. The private firm pays the rest, estimated at $655 million. In return, it can collect tolls for 50 years to recover its costs and earn a profit.
Motorists can continue to use the existing lanes at no cost. The tolls apply only to the two new lanes. Those lanes also are open, for free, to vehicles carrying at least three people, hence HOV for high occupancy vehicles.
A group called WIDENI77 filed suit to stop all this, challenging just about every aspect of the deal. It claimed the legislature unconstitutionally delegated authority to DOT to set tolls and to contract with the private firm; that DOT violated its taxing power; that it violated the public purpose doctrine; that it violated due process, and more.
Judge Ann Marie Calabria wrote the decision for the Court of Appeals and was joined by Judges Doug McCullough and Lucy Inman.
McCullough signed off on the ruling before he resigned from the court last Monday.
Calabria reviews state laws delegating certain powers to the Department of Transportation and cites a statute that specifically addresses the need to take innovative approaches to transportation improvements:
"Toll funding of highway and bridge construction is feasible in North Carolina and can contribute to addressing the critical transportation needs of the State. A toll program can speed the implementation of needed transportation improvements by funding some projects with tolls."
To that end, the state has created the N.C. Turnpike Authority. It has completed the Triangle Expressway, and the I-77 project is now underway. Others are "under development" (none in the Triad).
Anyone can debate whether it's good policy or smart politics to take this route, but there doesn't seem to be much of a question about legalities. These projects serve a public purpose, the court said.
In regard to taxing authority, a previous Supreme Court case established that "tolls are not taxes."
Calabria cited the higher court from 1965 in an opinion authored by Justice Susie Sharp: "A person uses a toll road at his option; if he does not use it, he pays no toll. Taxes are levied for the support of government, and their amount is regulated by its necessities. Tolls are the compensation for the use of another's property or improvements made, and their amount is determined by the cost of the property or improvements."
In that sense, maybe the I-77 project is like the old Fayetteville and Western Plank Road, described here as "the longest plank road ever built in North Carolina ... the Fayetteville and Western stretched 129 miles from the Market House in Fayetteville to the village of Bethania near Salem in Forsyth County."
It was completed in 1854 by the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road Company.
"Revenue for the Fayetteville and Western came from a graduated schedule of tolls. A horse and rider paid one half cent per mile, and wagons paid tolls from one cent to four cents per mile, depending on the number of horses pulling them."
That was legal then, and its modern equivalent is legal now.
WIDENI77 posted a statement on its website that it is "deeply disappointed" by the court's opinion and will meet to discuss its options.
They may amount to: use the toll lanes or don't.
conservatives should be pushing for full privatization of the interstates and repeal of federal gas tax.
let the free market reign
How would you justify the taxpayers pissing away the hundreds of billions of dollars already spent on them?
I see the Lexus Lanes have struck again.
With respect to “use the toll lanes or don’t”, that’s only if you have options. I happen to live in the only county in MD where I have to pay tolls to go home from work.
The contract to build this road is going to a foreign company. Plus it’s giving that foreign company rights to the land.
Is it fair to use taxpayer’s money to build a road? Is it fair to give these rights to foreigners?
And because your toll isn’t spread out over all 40 miles of I-95 covered by the MdTA, you have to pay the whole dang thing!
It’s the one for I-95 or Pulaski Highway going over the Susquehanna. $8.00.
Americans at most levels these days are nothing but tax paying serfs with minimal rights and narrow options of legitimate grievance.
I live in Mooresville. This I77 deal IS A DISASTROUS MESS!!! They have dozed down thousands of older established trees to make the changes.
Large debris is rampant and flying into cars daily. I’m talking TEETH OFF OF BACKHOE AND EXCAVATOR BUCKETS AS WELL AS OTHER LARGER ITEMS MADE OF METAL!!! It’s amazing that nobody has been killed yet.
Traffic is backed up all the way to Statesville on the Southbound side all the time.
We the People are getting F’ed big time. Crammed up Our backsides with no hope of fixing it...
You don’t have EZ-Pass? This would be a good time to get one. Larry Hogan dropped the EZ-Pass toll at the I-95 booth from $7.20 to $6.00, and the monthly charge for the transponder has been dropped.
You can save yourself $2 a trip with the EZ-Pass.
Selling the interstates suggests that the buyers are going to pay more than it cost to build them way back when.
So privatizing should be a big net gain
why would socialism work for the interstates when it fails in every other realm ?
the foreigners are paying €650 million for the right to build and fill a couple of lanes on this interstate.
Seems like a win for everyone
That still doesn’t address the billions already paid for upkeep as well. Unless the taxes are actually cut then people will be paying double.
Meanwhile, the Monroe Bypass is coming right by the end of my nose.
our present interstate system is a misima of corruption waste mismanagement and fraud requiring hundreds of billions of taxpayer bailouts every few years.
privatize it and costs will plummet plus quality will skyrocket
A wealthy entity was considering making a limited access private super-highway from Chicago to Denver, with no speed limit, with long-haul truckers in mind. Word got out, and present landowners priced the plan out of feasibility.
Because I am a resident of Ceciltucky, I can get a Hatem Bridge pass for $20/yr. So that’s what i do.
But the price you pay is all the traffic congestion trying to get through Havre Disgrace (with the lights) and once you cross the bridge, there is 15 more drive time minutes of congestion and lights, and all the wear and tear it puts on your car all the way home.
$2.00 savings off an $8.00 toll? COME ON!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.