More selling off of America?

[Red20170]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11131603/

[Steel2686]

Things like this should be illegal. Using a major roadway to turn a profit... at least privately, seems wrong on so many levels. If I were to drive from my house to Chicago, that's the highway I would need to take. I wouldn't anymore.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Things like this should be illegal. Using a major roadway to turn a profit... at least privately, seems wrong on so many levels. If I were to drive from my house to Chicago, that's the highway I would need to take. I wouldn't anymore.

Especially since the fuel tax is what paid for it. That means you already paid for it.

They are talking about a private company doing an expansion of the road (Ga 316) from I85 just north east of Atlanta to Athens and turning it into a toll road to pay for it. The problem is the toll they are talking is about $5. So that it would add $10 a day to a commute. $50 a week. That's $2500 a year to add to someone's commute.

Both are just wrong.

[Crazy Canuk]

In ontario canada, the last provencal goverment (like a state gov) sold a highway they recently built and all the electrical power stations and suport just so they could ballance there budgets from year to year. I can't believe how short sided goverments are and it makes me sick.

[Red20170]

There is also a section of I81 here is VA that is under proposal now.

[Dave M]

I'm torn on this one. I believe that government's sole responsibilities are to protect its citizens and to provide products/services that the private sector can't or won't. On one hand, if the private sector is willing to step up and run highways, why should the government do it? On the other hand, the government can provide these services without needing to worry about turning a profit. As long as there are terms outlining that tolls can not be increased astronomically, and maintainance is kept up, and the government can control the road in times of emergency, I lean towards saying let the private sector have it. However, I wouldn't want to see every road become private/toll. There is a point when people have a right to these services for "free" (our taxes have paid for them).

[Steel2686]

The problem with a private sector running a major raodway lies in where do we draw the line? By that I mean how can we police how much they charge for tolls? Raodways not covered completely by taxes should be able to have tolls. Our tax dollars, combined with tolls, should cover ONLY what it costs to maintain that road. No more.

This is basically a monopoly. I realize there is always another way to travel from point A to point B, but this is the fastest way to get there. If tax dollars have been paying for this, how do we see a breakdown of where the money is going or went?

Talk about two ends of the spectrum. Here in Connecticut, the truck drivers call it "the drive-thru state" due to there being zero tolls on both major highways (I-95 and I-84). Unfortunately, the roadway suffers because of it. Tolls make more sense, because I only travel I-84 usually, and rarely am I on 95 (I avoid it like the plague). However, my taxes pay for both.

[Red20170]

Indiana House Democrats also say it is bad public policy to sell off or lease a major public asset to a private venture, particularly a foreign one. They note that the venture could recoup its investment in 17 years, then make $21 billion in profits over the next 58 years.

The 50-year-old Indiana Toll Road had 55 million paying customers last year but lost money five of the last seven years, including about $16 million in 2005, largely because the state has not mustered the political will to raise the tolls in more than 20 years.

Does anybody else see the short term thinking in these deals by our political leadership?
I don't like to see infrastructure being sold off like this. I guess this is my isolationist thinking. I guess if they own our national debt. They can own our infrastructure and real estate too.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

My problem is taxing for roads AND still charging a toll. One or the other but not both.

[Trash man]

Talk about two ends of the spectrum. Here in Connecticut, the truck drivers call it "the drive-thru state" due to there being zero tolls on both major highways (I-95 and I-84). Unfortunately, the roadway suffers because of it. Tolls make more sense, because I only travel I-84 usually, and rarely am I on 95 (I avoid it like the plague). However, my taxes pay for both.

been thru waterbury lately? talk bout a mess, how long has that construction be going on for?

[TraceZ]

This really bothers me. When I think about what I pay taxes for, the maintenance of highways and other critical infrastructure is one of the first things that comes to mind just behind national defense. A reasonable toll, paid to the government for highway maintenance is a usage tax.

A profit being sent overseas is not a tax.

The People of this country represented by our elected government own our highways, and all other wide open spaces. This is the USA, land of the free. We are free to go wherever we want to whenever we want to.

The thought of this icon of American freedom being sold to any private party, expecially a foreign party makes me ill.

Why not start selling national parks to foreign investors? Let some French company charge us for access to see our own countryside. They can maintain it and turn a profit that they can send back to their mainland.


sick.

How on earth does it make good business sense to take tolls from our highways and ship them out of the country? Just wait and see the outrage from commuters when they learn what they have to pay for an annual toll pass. That'll put a stop to it really fast when election time rolls around.

[ryan34]

so what kind of upkeep do these companies need to maintain? Are we taking about just enough so they don't have to pay in damages? Or are they gonna keep these highways flawless? And how does the gov't police the standards(if any are set)?