Plan to sell American toll roads to foreign companies

[Amy6627]

If a governor told you there were a way to spread pork, raise funds for infrastructure investment, promote jobs, avoid raising taxes, and put a dent in the trade deficit—all in one fell swoop—you might think he had a bridge to sell you. And you'd be right. Only in this case, it's a toll road. And instead of a sale, how about a long-term lease?

Earlier this month, in a triumph for Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana's House narrowly approved his proposal to lease the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road, which spans the northern part of the state, for $3.85 billion to a joint venture of Cintra, a Spanish company, and Australia's Macquarie Bank. The two companies have been active in the U.S. road business. In 2004, the two inked a 99-year lease for the 7.8-mile elevated Chicago Skyway. Last year, Macquarie completed its acquisition of the Dulles Greenway outside Washington, D.C. And Cintra, which manages toll roads in Europe and the Americas, is a strategic partner to the Texas state government in the planned Trans-Texas Corridor. There are likely more such deals to come.

http://www.slate.com/id/2138950/?nav=fo

[Beelzebud]

1. How is this even legal? Didn't our tax dollars build the fucking roads?

Just sell out the entire fucking country..

[Amy6627]

5. I have no idea if this is legal. It sure as hell should not be! It makes

me sick. This is kinda on the same lines-- I was watching the history channel about modern day pirates, our ports are not secure and they are selling those off as well. I got this from john murtha:
$1.5 billion/year Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost) (5 days in Iraq)

here is the whole thing:
COUNTERPUNCH: July 13, 2006 $11 Million Every Hour
What the Iraq War is Costing Us
By Rep. JOHN P. MURTHA

We are spending $8 billion a month in Iraq. that equates to 2 billion dollars a week, or 267 million dollars a day, or 11 million dollars an hour.

Attached are some comparisons between what we are spending in Iraq as we "stay the course" indefinitely and what those funds could be used for instead.

I've been fighting for our military to get out of Iraq because I'm concerned about the loss of our troops and the future of our military and also because I believe they have accomplished their mission there and the Iraqis must resolve their internal conflict themselves. However, I also wanted to demonstrate what these expenses mean to domestic policy in the United States and give you an idea of just some of the things that what we could accomplish with this amount of money.

NATIONAL SECURITY

$33.1 billion/yr Department of Homeland Security FY 07 budget (4 months in Iraq)

$10 billion (1-time) Equipping commercial airliners with defenses against shoulder fired missiles (5 weeks in Iraq)

$8.6 billion/7 years Shortage of international aid needed to rebuild Afghanistan (one month in Iraq)

$5.2 billion (1-time) estimated need for capital improvements to secure public transportation system (trains, subways, buses) (3 weeks in Iraq)

$1.5 billion/year Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost) (5 days in Iraq)

$1.4 billion/ year Double the COPS (community police grants) program (5 days in Iraq)

$800 million/year public transportation personnel training and technical support (72 hours in Iraq)

$700 million/year 100% screening of all air cargo - rejected because of (2 days in Iraq) cost (1/4 of domestic shipping and 1/2 of international shipping is done on passenger planes)

$350 million (1-time) Make emergency radio systems interoperable (1.2 days in Iraq) (recommended after 9/11 but hasn't happened yet)

$500 million/year Double the firefighters grant program (2 days in Iraq)

$94 million/year Restore cuts to cities hit on 9/11 in Homeland Security budget (8-1/2 hours in Iraq)

HEALTH CARE/VETERANS

$36 billion/5 years reduction for Medicare spending in President's FY 07 budget (4-1/2 months in Iraq)

$5 billion/5 years Cut in Medicaid in President's FY 2007 budget (2-1/2 weeks in Iraq)

$2.5 billion/5 years VA health care premium increases in this year's budget. Premiums will double and triple and drug co-payments will increase, costing our military retirees $2.4 billion over 5 years (9 days in Iraq)

$100 million Additional funding recommended for mental health research for Veterans (9 hours in Iraq)

$48 million Medical and prosthetic research for Veterans (half a day in Iraq)

$65 million/yr National Institutes of Health research funding cuts in this year's budget (scientists are leaving the field of health research because funding has been cut so severely) (6 hours in Iraq)

$15 billion/yr Provide health insurance to 9 million children with no health insurance (1-1/2 weeks in Iraq)

$118 million/yr The Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides nutritional food packages for less than $20 a month to more than 400,000 elderly people - eliminated in the President's budget (12 hours in Iraq)

EDUCATION

$3.4 billion/yr Cut in education budget in President's FY 07 budget from FY 06 funding level (over 40 programs including drug-free schools, federal support for the arts,technology and parent-resource centers). (13 days in Iraq)

$664 million/yr Perkins Loan program cut in President's FY 07 budget (would help 463,000 low-income students attend college) (2-1/2 days in Iraq)

$99 million/yr Even Start (eliminated in President's budget) (9 hours in Iraq)

ENVIRONMENT/INFRASTRUCTURE

$300 million President's cut to EPA budget in FY 2007 (1 day, 3 hours in Iraq)

$253 billion/30 years Clean up contaminated sites in US (Up to 350,000 contaminated sites will require cleanup over the next 30 years according to a report released by the EPA.) (2 years in Iraq)

$9.11 billion National Park Service maintenance backlog (1 month, 10 days in Iraq)

$6 billion Forest Service maintenance backlog (3 weeks in Iraq)

$2 billion Fish and Wildlife Service maintenance backlog (2 weeks in Iraq)

$47.2 billion/yr Miscellaneous user fees throughout government imposed by President's budget on taxpayers (6 months in Iraq)

$1.7 billion/yr Grants to states cut in 2007 budget (1 week in Iraq)

$15 million/yr Double the Save America's Treasures program (cut in half from last year's budget) (1.3 hours in Iraq)

DEFENSE

$6 billion Double the number of Navy ships we are buying in the 2007 bill from 6 ships to 12. (3 weeks in Iraq)

$8 billion Double the number of total Air Force aircraft we are buying in this bill. That's right ? we could double the number of F-22s, Joint Strike Fighters, C-130's, Global Hawks and Predators we are buying. Or, we could double the number of Navy and Marine Corps aircraft we are buying F-18s, V-22s, KC-130Js, and so on. (1 month in Iraq)

Rep. John P. Murtha is a member of Congress from Pennsylvania.

=============================================================================================

How to contact John Murtha http://www.house.gov/murtha/contact.shtml

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[mccoyn]

13. It's a toll road.

I'm not sure the details, but I assume its construction and maintainance is largely paid for by the tolls. I drove it earlier this year, its in better condition than most highways in the area.

[Armstead]

2. Patriortism? Ha! Public interest? Double Ha!

[long_green]

3. ah, the blessings of privatization

the end result of this fanaticism is the destruction of the nation that is its greatest proponent.

[underpants]

4. Va. (2), Texas, and maybe the New Jersey turnpike

Here are just a few of the many other projects either approved or proposed across the country. In Virginia, the rights to manage, operate and maintain the Pocahontas Parkway, an 8.8-mile toll road outside of Richmond, were bought for $611 million by the Transburban Group, also an Australian entity in its first foray into U.S. road management. A lawmaker in New Jersey has proposed selling a 49% interest in the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway to a private investor.

In August 2005, the same Macquarie Infrastructure Group took over operations of the Dulles Greenway Toll Road which operates between suburban Virginia and Washington, D.C., for the amount of $533 million. And the anticipated widening and extension of the Trans-Texas Corridor which runs 316 miles and parallel to I-35 in Texas, is slated to be built by Cintra, the Spanish company, and Zachry Construction, out of San Antonio, TX, who plan to invest $7.2 billion.

http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/dgrassi_20060629.html

[Sadie5]

6. Done deal-anything Daniels wants, he gets

I can't remember the name of the group, but they did go to court over this. The Fundie judge ordered them to pay a ridiculously high bond, somewhere around a bil $$. They of course couldn't raise the money. The judge was obviously in Daniels pocket. The star news message board was filed with Mitch lovers who talked of how Mitch had steered the state in the right(pardon the pun) direction and had eliminated our debt. The Star News top story was how Daniels had done right by the state.

[Initech]

7. Great! Dont give Ahnuld any ideas!

Yeah this gives him a great idea - outsource the toll roads (one of which is a mere mile and a half from my house) to some foreign investors. As much as I would like to see CA's traffic problems solved, I dont think selling the freeways to foreign investors is the ticket.

[dysfunctional press]

8. the chicago skyway is now in british hands.

and i believe that blago is looking to make a deal on our tollway sytem as well.
he also wants to sell the state's lottery operations.

[tcfrogs]

9. The skyway was leased several years ago

And I also thought Blago wanted to get rid of the entire toll system. Or maybe that was George Ryan, I can't recall.

[Ganja Ninja]

10. Why don't we just put the whole shooting match on the table?

Package up the whole country, our sovereignty from sea to shining sea and sell it all to the arabs. After all the government owns the country and we're all nothing more than share cropping tenant/peasants.
:banghead:

[mtnester]

11. Wanna hear one better? The evil KEN BLACKWELL

also wants to do this:

Here is his plug from his own damn website:
http://www.kenblackwell.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=417

And another from NOT his site:
http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/114940996298790.xml&coll=2

And here is a lovely showing how the dear Mr. Blackwell did not have to pay any tolls the other day:
http://www.kenblackwell.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=417

[Bluebear]

12. Built with OUR tax dollars. Sold to the highest bidding foreign entity,

That's bidness Bush style.

[Mir]

14. As a Native Hoosier

I'm particularly indignant toward this shite, but, on the other hand, I think it is yet another sign of not only our state governments', but also our federal government's tragic desperation in dealing with their bankruptcy. We have run up such ridiculously huge fucking debts and borrowed so much money from so many countries that the rest of the world literally owns our collective ass. Now they're calling it in. This is going to happen over and over again, at both the state and federal levels all across the country and in every possible area and industry - especially under the hideous repukes. Our ports, our highways, our airlines, and on and on and fucking on. The piper - or pipers rather - are getting paid.