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You think tolls are bad now?
By adamg on Tue, 09/11/2007 - 10:01am
The Herald reports Deval Patrick is looking at leasing key roads to private companies, who would then be able to make money by squeezing commuters like a turnip.
Here's the thing: Although the authorities that now run our toll roads (the turnpike authority and Massport) are isolated to some extent from the public they allegedly serve (hence the "quasi" in "quasi-public"), the are, ultimately, still responsible to our elected officials (just ask Christy Mihos). Private companies? All bets are off:
... In Indiana, for example, a deal to privatize that state’s toll road led to a 100 percent up-front toll hike, and the possibility of 7 percent annual increases over the life of a 75-year lease. ...
Not that, in the greater scheme of things, toll increases would be a bad thing, if, say, they meant greater investment in public transportation, but the odds of that happening with private ownership? Hah!
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Comments
Selling a revenue source to
Selling a revenue source to the private sector is a silly variation of the old sell-lease-back scheme/scam. Very 1988. More money for Deval and the Hill to spend now, higher tolls for residents to pay in the future. Silly, silly stuff.
And then when the people
And then when the people realize what a mistake it was to sell these roads, bridges and tolls in the first place (because of huge toll increases, little if no repair to save on costs, and the general problems that will arise from public ownership), they'll have to buy them back at a large premium of what they were sold, effectively paying more for the road then they made in the sale.
I don't think we should be putting public roads and utilities in the hands of real estate investment trusts.
If anything the quasi public agencies need to be transformed. There should be a MassDOT running the show for the commonwealth, and the MBTA needs to have a mjor overhaul, and excessive waste cut from the system. I don;t want to trade one "you shake mine, I'll shake yours" institution, for another.
Oh Horrors!
While I generally think privatization is a joke, I also think that the current level of subsidies for car commuters are a joke too.
Perhaps we can hike the tolls to cover the costs of the roads (including the currently toll-less sections of 93 and 3), make car commuters pay the full cost of upkeep through tolls and gas taxes that are LINKED to infrastructure maintenance, and leave the profit margins out of it.
The government is your friend?
It's amazing how persistent people can be at ignoring the plain facts of how ineffective, corrupt, and irresponsible governments always are at managing resources. I suppose it's because so many went to public schools and, if they didn't learn much of anything else, learned to regard the government as beneficent and competent.
Government agencies have an incentive to waste money; the more they "need," the more they get. This is also true in "public-private partnerships," so there is a risk of the same effect in contracting out roads; but it can also be done right. Let the companies be dependent on how usable the roads are for their revenue, and they'll do a better job than the government will.
"there is a risk of the same
"there is a risk of the same effect in contracting out roads; but it can also be done right."
So, you don't think government can keep roads in shape but you think it can hammer out and oversee a contract that will get it done at no extra cost to either tax or toll payers? You don't have me convinced. You don't have me convinced that the Governor has that outcome in mind: I think he's simply looking for an easy-to-get pile of cash. What the Governor has going for himself so far is that he has made or supported very few irreversible decisions or ideas. Selling the Pike is in effect irreversible.
Private roads
[Crack about public school ignored]
"Let the companies be dependent on how usable the roads are for their revenue, and they'll do a better job than the government will."
In a competitive arena, perhaps, but we're essentially talking about granting monopolies here (especially if the same company wins the tunnel AND Tobin leases). Monopolies tend to maximize their revenue; public be damned.