Posted on 01/31/2006 9:47:06 AM PST by RockinRight
Maintenace of a road the size of our toll road is peanuts compared to what it cost to build it. Our road is constantly being upgraded and repairs done continuosly so it's not even close to being near the end of it's life.
The reason those roads are maintained in that fashion is because the money is available to do it. If you run it on a for profit basis on a 20 or 50 lease how well do you think it'll be maintained towards the end of the lease?
It's already a cash cow for the Ohio State Gestapo Highway Patrol.
To answer your first point, if I'm running it for profit I wouldn't put a dime into it over the last 10 years of the lease unless I absolutely had to. The result of which would be an asset in absolute disrepair at the end of the lease.
As to your second point if it's such a profitable venture to run then they can use the "profit" to fund the JOB programs etc. and stop selling the right to monetarily rape travelers to the highest bidder.
I have no interest in paying someone else a profit to ride on an asset we paid for that should be maintained at cost at the worst and should be free at best now that the original bonds have been paid off.
If this goes through it's legislative theft and I expected better from Blackwell.
Lest anyone kid themselves the companies that are pushing for these programs and winning the bids are foreign owned. The Trans Texas corridor being the largest example of something new along these lines that will be foreign controlled.
I think folks on this thread are arguing the wrong point. If selling the operations of the road to a private business is worth 4-5 billion dollars then putting that money to work creating jobs is a noble idea. The Ohio Secretary of State seems to think the government should do it.
If you want to create jobs give the citizens of Ohio a 4-5 billion dollar tax cut.
Far as I can tell, those tax cuts, and more, are also in Blackwell's plans.
The 99-year period was selected at random. But whatever period was selected should represent "the useful life of the asset". By the time the lease expired, it would be expected to be in disrepair -- and ready for replacement.
I agree with you, that a public asset (such as a toll road) which has been fully paid for should revert to free usage. However, Ohio has been so mismanaged that it isn't in a position financially to do that -- and Blackwell's proposal represents an inventive way to convert the asset into something that might be more useful (note that I'm not making a judgment on the JOB program, but rather on the concept of liquidating assets in a state like Ohio).
Texas ain't Ohio. Thus, the TTC is a whole 'nother issue.
You're right. . .still a little under the national radar now but certainly has a better-than-decent shot at a Presidential nomination.
Government bureaucracy is the largest part of the inefficiency.
By leasing it out to be run by a private company, the State is learning how to run it more efficiently.
At least in Texas, they want to use the tolls to build other roads. Diverting tolls for welfare projects sounds like a really bad idea.
Toll roads the size of ours are never replaced because they are constantly being repaired in sections. If you lease it to someone you run the risk of them allowing it to fall into a state that would require it to be replaced wholesale and the cost of that would fall back on us. Since the cost would be far too high and all the money from the sale of the lease spent we'd wind up with the worlds largest stretch of unusable road.
Be careful about discussing the mismanagement of Ohio (I agree with you by the way), since the republicans have been in charge while it's happened some people would consider comments like that heresy.
The fact of the matter is that they don't need to dump assets to fix what's wrong, doing that takes a short termed approach in my opinion. It took a while to get us in this shape and it'll take a while to get out of it. Making the process seem painless by selling our future away isn't the answer.
With respect to the TTC are you in favor of a foreign company forcing Texans to sell their land (through legislative action) so that they can make a buck?
Of all the places I never thought I'd see something like that happen Texas would have been first on the list.
Interesting idea?
The companies buying our infrastructure aren't even USA businesses.
bttt
Biker for Governor!
Are we sure? I know in Indiana, that's been the case, but nobody's even actually put them up for sale here yet. The idea has potential, although I'm not gung-ho, I just said it was an interesting idea, with potential.
other sates like NJ are thinking of this - and it will be a disaster. the government may be inefficient at maintaining the roads, but private companies will do worse. free enterprise is great, when competition influences performance. the companies buying these roads will essentially be monopolies - who is competing with them? what, is someone going to come along and build another turnpike along side the existing one to offer a better road surface and lower tolls? of course not, this is essentially a "turnpike monopoly" that is being created.
the NYC subway systems used to be run totally by independent companies. they were taken over because the companies running the trains were monopolies, taking maximum fees and providing bare minimal services. the same will happen when roads are sold to private companies, absent competition.
This idea has been kicked around NJ (without voter consent).
I tracked back all the businesses that were interested in bidding on our infrastructure. They all were foreign.
I will add the info here. I'm leaving my desk now; but I still have the PDFs for all the bids.
From what I understand, the biggest hurdle these companies face in this process is accurately estimating the maintenance costs in the out-years of the contract (the contracting private company is usually required to operate the facility for 25 years before turning it over to the authorizing government agency) that would meet the standards set forth in the contract.
Corzine is going to do it. he wants the one-shot revenues to defer what would otherwise be a whole series of tax hikes he would have to enact. and not much will happen in the short term, the voters won't see any real changes until years from now, when the private companies who buy the roads start allowing them to decay even worse then the DOT would.
The companies buying these roads will essentially be monopolies - who is competing with them?
They'll be run out of business even as monopolies. In fact, they'll be run out of business because they're monopolies. Imagine owning a business that is going to find itself in court thousands of times every year to face civil lawsuits related to every freakin' accident, flat tire, crime etc. that occurs on the roadway you've contracted to operate.
Great! Now China can buy our roads.
the contract they sign with the state will shield them from such litigation I am sure.
there is a way to do this with private corporations - but it requires alot of oversight, the same way utilities are operated as regulated monopolies.
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