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CRIMINAL CHARGES: "PAY to PLAY" SCHEME * USA
* Pennsylvania - Former state senator, and PA Turnpike officials charged in 'pay to play' scheme
Olympia,WASH,USA -Land Line, by David Tanner -14 March 2013: -- Former Pennsylvania Turnpike officials including Commissioner, Mitchell Rubin, and CEO, Joseph Brimmeier, are facing criminal charges stemming from a lengthy grand jury investigation, Attorney General, Kathleen G. Kane, announced Wednesday, March 13. Kane also announced charges against former state Sen. Robert Mellow... Kane said Rubin, Brimmeier, Mellow and five others, including two contractors who made millions, face a variety of offenses... A posting on Kane’s website states the following: “The grand jury heard evidence of secret gifts of cash, travel, and entertainment, and the payment of substantial political contributions to public officials and political organizations, by private Turnpike vendors and their consultants… The charges show those who ‘pay to play’ have sought and been rewarded with multimillion dollar Turnpike contracts. As a result, the public has lost millions of dollars” ...
* Washington - State funding plan a work in progress
Olympia,WASH,USA -Land Line, by Keith Goble -15 March 2013: -- Competing plans offered at the Washington statehouse provide funding options that would increase the state’s fuel tax rate by a dime or pursue other methods to generate transportation revenue... House Democrats offered a nearly $10 billion tax package that includes a 10-cent-per-gallon fuel tax increase to pay for roads, bridges and transit work... House Republicans have instead called on their counterparts to enact a transportation reform package before the conversation turns to increasing the state’s 37.5-cent-per-gallon fuel tax... The $9.8 billion initiative includes provisions to increasing vehicle registration fees and charging a bicycle fee... Projects that would benefit from the additional funding include widening Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass, adding lanes to Interstate 405, and building the Columbia River Crossing. The project would replace the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River and improve nearby interchanges...
* Texas - Truck discount extended on Central Texas toll road
Austin,TXS,USA -Land Line, by David Tanner -14 March 201: -- Truckers will pay the same rate as four wheelers for the next 12 months on the SH 130 toll road in Central Texas. The Texas Department of Transportation says the discount is an incentive to reduce truck traffic on Interstate 35 through Austin... If the discount sounds familiar, it is. TxDOT experimented with the price reduction in late 2011 and early 2012, and reported a 50 percent increase in truck toll transactions. TxDOT tried it again from Feb. 4 through March 3 of this year, posting similar results... Driving traffic to the tollway, through the discount and a higher speed limit, allows TxDOT to collect an extra $33 million from the tollway operator, a consortium consisting of Cintra of Spain and Texas-based Zachry American Infrastructure...
Labels: criminal charges, privatization toll roads
posted by Unknown @ 3:27 PM
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