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DEBATE * USA - Leasing toll roads is the wrong fix for state money woes
By Bill Graves: Former governor of Kansas, is president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations
Salt Lake City,UT,USA -The Salt Lake Tribune -16 Feb 2007: -- I have a photo, from 1956... In those days a toll road was one of very few options available to states to build a freeway. Fifty years later toll roads are surging in popularity, but as a quick fix for state financial woes... With state budget shortfalls and a general unwillingness to raise taxes, state politicians are flocking to private investors for the highway equivalent of the payday loan... It is easy to see why politicians are tempted by this new scheme. The nation's highway system needs to grow and be maintained, but states are facing crushing debt loads. Funds to relieve these problems must come from somewhere... But the United States cannot maintain a national highway network if key segments are leased to the highest bidder. More than money is at stake. Leasing roadways allows states only to postpone, not solve, their budget problems, and without understanding the long-term implications... Privatization is dismantling the nation's interstate highway network. It's happening with the support and encouragement of the U.S. Department of Transportation and, until recently, without congressional review...
Labels: privatization toll roads
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