America's Highways for Sale

The United States Constitution says that the government shall 'provide for the common Defence and general Welfare. '  There is similar language in almost every state constitution.

Meanwhile, from Chicago to Texas, cities and states are selling off (or leasing for 99 years which is the same thing), vital bridges and toll roads.

Foreign companies buying U.S. roads, bridges

BY LESLIE MILLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON-- Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.

On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years...

Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.

I am all for ensuring that motor vehicles pay their true cost of operation, but private highway owners with a monopoly granted by the state government is exactly that --a price fixing, state sanctioned monopoly.

"They depoliticize the tolling decision," Poole said. Besides, he said, foreign companies have purchased infrastructure in Europe for years; only now are U.S. companies beginning to get into the business of buying roads and bridges.

'Depoliticize' means selling a public decision to the private sector. Because they did it in Europe is a hell of an answer. Does Poole like Eurpoean labor and tax laws, too?

The Bush administration's plan to let a foreign company manage U.S. ports met a storm of protest in February. But plans to sell or lease highways to companies outside the United States have not met such resistance.

As I said last February, Next to its standing army, there is no other element of a society as vital to its security as its transportation and communications systems.  In times of peace, there is no structure as critical to the security of the economy as the transportation system.

Even without the concerns on international terrorism, there is no excuse for any portion of the control and management of any seaport, airport, railroad hub or interstate highway system to be any further than the Federal government and and those it licenses to manage and maintain these vital infrastructure elements.

John Foote, senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the government can take over a highway in an emergency. But he objects to selling roads to raise cash.

That is because, one time revenues from the sale of public assets do nothing to fix a structural budget deficit.

Washington is not likely to produce more money to build roads. The federal highway fund--which will have a balance of about $16 billion by the end of 2006--will run out in 2009 or 2010, according to White House and congressional estimates.

The Grover Norquist 'lets drown government in the bathtub,' combined with the massive debt from the folly in Iraq, means that the right-wing Necon strategy of destroying America is working.

Orange County, Calif., got burned by a toll-road lease for a different reason.

The road, part of state Route 91, was built and run for $130 million by California Private Transportation Company, partly owned by France-based Compagnie Financiere et Industrielle des Autoroutes. The toll road opened in 1995.

Seven years later, Orange County was looking at gridlock. But it could not build more roads because of a provision in the lease. So it bought back the lease--for $207.5 million.

Can you say M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y, conservative Orange County?

After the roads, they will sell the schools. The Left had better wake up to this one quickly. At the rate the Right is moving, there will be no public infrastructure when the Democrats return to power.

For a pointed look at the subject, try this post of mine, United States for Sale From Sea To Shining Sea.

Comments

[jim rowen]

As states move towards tolling more roads and adding "congestion pricing," where tolls go up at peak-use periods, the use of major roads will become more class-based: if you can afford to pay, you can drive. If not, you'll end up driving less-direct routes, and into new congestion zones.

If private companies can set the toll rates based on recovering their costs, plus a profit to pay share or bondholders, the rates will go up accordingly.

And as for transit: that's being cut back at the same time as public services become more privatized and less available.

[Jesse Justice]

This is highway robbery. It is the sale for profit of property and access that rightfully belongs to the taxpayers. I am a taxpayer and nobody asked my permission. I have been first robbed of my rightful property just as surely as if someone had stolen my home or my car.
I have been further relieved of my responsibility of informed consent through "congestion pricing". When I enter such a toll zone, I am not sure what the billable cost will be until payment is billed; I am expected to consent to whatever charges are noted in the Amount Due section of my monthly invoice and pay accordingly--ON TIME--or risk suspension of my Driver's License.
Further, the ramifications of future impact on public services and safety are issues not yet addressed and should be considered now. Laws and provisions governing law enforcement, emergency response, safety, security and maintenence vary substantially between public property and private property, and are also varied among states and their municipalities. How will public services be affected as the privatization of our nation's transportation networks are split among various foreign interests?
Most important, however, is the impact on national security and defense. In event of threat, can the foreign owner use profits to support offensive organizations or to manipulate American politics? In the event of imminent danger can they deny access or use?
Yes, folks, yet another wake-up-call has been made. Stop hitting the snooze button and get moving. While you were sleeping the security of American military bases has been contracted to private agencies, Northeastern ports have been reportedly sold to Canadian interests and American money is being delivered by the billions to foreign countries at the expense of the American working poor.
And you had to mention the schools.
Well..at this point, all I can offer is ..if Americans are naive enough to allow the sale of our nation's highways to foreign entities...I have a bridge in Brooklyn.....

[Mia Archer]

Just more profiteering at the expense of the people. We have a dictator..not a Democracy, now. And we are part of a World Government. How do you like it, folks..?

[Attie Kershner]

I just saw a portion of this info on CNN (Lou Dobbs reporting ) a couple of days ago and was stunned...I really could not believe what I was hearing. The goverment is allowed to sell our highways?? I felt sick and my first reaction was to try to get someone that carried weight with a large platform to speak to the people and address it nationally...it's sad but instead of going to our own goverment..I emailed Oprah, Bill O'Reilly (yes he's arrogant, but he shoots straight and hits the target) ..all the women individually from "The View" asking them would they address this subject because the newscaster co-hosting with Dobbs said 'people were unaware'...He responded, "Well we are going to try to make them aware"!! But the most effective thing to do is let everyone know and let public outcry stop the insanity!! It's sad to think that most of the things the above mentioned people talk about becomes instant conversation for millions, but that was all I could think to do!!!

[Andrea Wittwer]

And how do you get this information to the general non reading public? I will contact my letters to the editor in the local paper and ask my neighbors how they feel about selling off our roads, bridges and farm fields. They may spout off a little steam but in general they just won't care...they don't understand. What started with WalMart, the general fleecing of America's retail community, will end with other countries merely buying out the land from under us.
Fifty four years ago, my father came back from the Far East and said that China and Japan would not have to beat us in a war, they would simply buy us out. At that time he was more concerned about the burgeoning population bursting out of their country and flooding into the empty plains of N. America. He was a graduate of the U. of Wisconsin School of Agriculture and taught between the Red and Nationalist Chinese Armies as they duked it out. He was horrified by the bloody mess.
I have been in retail for almost forty years and have watched our N. Wisconsin community eaten up by conglomerates. Our Co-op has been beaten time and time again by competition but we have held our ground and struggled back against WalMart and other supercenters. Now we find that we can't buy American made products. We can hardly find foods that are grown and locally sold. In our Hardware store I can see cheap Chinese trash sold as useful products...but I know the difference. Cheap steel is just cheap steel. You can't drive a well or tighten a coupling on it but most Americans don't understand. There is rapidly not another option! American made steel was the best quality and you could pound on it all day without splitting it. Not cheap steel. And even vacuum cleaners! I sold Hoover and Eureka vacs twenty years ago that I am still repairing. Now I have to sell shells of plastic all with the same cheap motors made in China and different cheap names on the outside. I am embarrassed to sell this dump fodder! Wake Up America! We have become the computer Phoenicians of the new world. We will own nothing and become itinerant peddlers as others buy the ground from under our unwary feet.

[Jesse Justice]

...and so Americans continue to snooze while the goblins of nightmares continue to flourish.....A sad commentary on the citizens of a once great and independent nation.