Concerned Citizens Addressing Critical Transportation Issues
Date: Oct. 16, 2008
Compiled by: United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG)
Strong Public Opposition to Road Privatization:
Respondents line up strongly against road privatization. An overwhelming 84 percent of those polled by the National Association of Realtors Americans oppose the privatization of existing public highways. 1
Two-thirds oppose letting private companies build, own and toll new roads. 2
Surveys from several states that have approved or proposed highway lease deals mirror these results. The data also follows a trend, identified by Rod Diridon Sr., executive director of the San Jose State University’s Mineta Transportation institute, that people tend to become more skeptical about public-private partnerships in transportation the more they learn about the particular plans. 3
Pennsylvania opposition to privatization grows over time
Several polls have shown widespread opposition to the proposed leasing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to private investors. The Mid-Atlantic chapter of the AAA showed that 70 percent of its members in southeastern Pennsylvania opposed such a deal. 4
Quinnipiac University conducted a series of polls that show growing public opposition to a privatization deal among Pennsylvanians over time. In March 2007 support for the proposed lease deal was 49 percent among Pennsylvanians; but this fell to 44 percent in May 2007 5 and dropped precipitously to 29 percent by August 2008. 6 In response to the state’s budget problems Gov. Corzine considered leasing the state’s turnpike. Citizens reacted negatively to the privatization plan, drawing opposition from 61 percent of voters.7 Such opposition was virtually consistent across all party lines. The more respondents were educated about the plan, the more likely they were to oppose it. Eighty-five percent of voters who had heard or read “a lot” about the lease proposal opposed the idea. 8 Texas Okay With Tolls, Not Privatization Texans would prefer to pay tolls rather than pay higher gas taxes (61 percent to 23 percent). 9 And fifty-six percent of Texans thought that it was a good deal to complete Highway 121 through the use of tolls. 10 Despite these preferences, the same poll found only 42 percent of respondents believed that it was a good idea for the Texas Department of Transportation to allow a private firm to build the road in return for the right to charge tolls. Another poll similarly found that whereas 48 percent of respondents believed it was a good idea to complete necessary construction of Interstate 635 through the use of tolls, just 34 percent believed that it was a good idea for TxDOT to allow a private firm build the road for the right to collect tolls. 11 California’s tepid approval of private toll lanes reverses with experience California’s first experience with road privatization was State Road 91, with private tolls for drivers to buy their way into lower-congestion high occupancy lanes. Prior to the opening of these lanes, polls indicated that the idea of tolled express lanes being operated for profit by a private company was not popular, with a range of only 37-47 percent of Southern Californians approving. 12 After SR91 opened in 1996, approval for the for-profit operation of these lanes initially increased to 37-65 percent and one year later had increased to 41-75 percent. 13 By the time a follow up study was done in 2007 problems with the concession became apparent. Noncompete clauses in the operating contract prevented state authorities from improving nearby roads causing enough public discontent that the county transportation authority was forced to repurchase the road from the private operator. Consequently, the idea of private for-profit operation of the express lanes became far less popular with approval dipping down between 30 - 45 percent. 14 Generally, support for the variable toll express lanes came from those who used the toll lanes rather than those who did not. 15 Commuters with higher incomes (over $100,000) also showed higher levels of support for toll financing. 16 Indiana governor’s unpopular lease deal loses his party house control Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana made it a priority in his first term to push through a lease deal of the state’s turnpike to private investors. His efforts were extremely unpopular. In March 2006, 30 percent of Hoosiers thought the lease was a good idea, with large numbers of undecideds. 17 Almost a year later, displeasure crystallized with 52 percent of voters statewide disapproving of the deal. 18 That disapproval number was 66 percent in northern Indiana among those most affected by the deal. In the November 2007 elections the unpopularity of lease was used by Democrats to gain control of the state house. Less opposition to toll roads than gas taxes Across the country Americans are aware that our transportation infrastructure is not adequately meeting the increasing demands placed upon it. Yet even as the majority of Americans recognize the need for increased transportation funding, very few are willing to pay more at the pump through higher gas taxes. Of the other options available to raise transportation funds, toll roads seem to be the most acceptable. But this support is limited to tolling of new highway lanes with the majority of toll supporters opposed to the tolling of existing lanes. • 70 percent of drivers say the US transportation system is not meeting their community’s needs 19 • Only 21 percent of American drivers support a gas tax increase 20 • 52 percent of drivers favor toll roads to raise needed transportation funds, though most limit their support to tolling of new highway lanes, not existing lanes. 21 Little support for congestion tolling Even though drivers prefer to pay tolls instead of increased gas taxes, there is general discomfort with the idea of congestion pricing that would charge variable toll rates during peak rush hours. This resistance to congestion pricing also includes high-occupancy tolling (HOT) lanes where support is also particularly low. • 60 percent of drivers oppose congestion pricing on freeways during rush hour to reduce traffic 22 • Only 36 percent of respondents support policies to allow drivers to pay tolls that would allow them to use high-occupancy tolling (HOT) lanes. 23 References: 1 Survey shows Americans prefer to spend more on mass transit and highway maintenance, less on new roads. Smart Growth America. Oct. 25, 2007. [Online] Available: http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/ narsgareport2007.html [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]. 2 ibid 3 Worth, Katie. Road privatization finds favor, The Examiner. Apr. 11, 2008 [Online]. Available: http://www.examiner.com/a-1333587~Road_privatization_finds_favor.html [accessed Oct. 16, 2008] 4 Rossomando, John., Polls: Turnpike privatization unpopular, The Phoenix. April 4, 2007 [Online]. Available: http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18166502&BRD=1673& PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6 [accessed Oct. 16, 2008] 5 Pennsylvania Voters Back Rendell Plan to Hike Sales Tax, Quinnipaic University Poll Finds;Ssupport to Reduce Lawmakers and Set Term Limits, Quinnipiac University. May 30, 2007 [Online]. Available: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1327.xml?ReleaseID=1069 [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]. 6 Voters Don’t Think Lawmakers Will Stop Corruption, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Chris Matthews Plays Hardball with Specter, Quinnipiac Univeristy Poll. Aug. 5, 2008 [Online]. Available: http://www.post-gazette.com/ downloads/20080805poll.pdf [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]. 7 Corzine faces Uphill Climb to Sell Toll Road Idea. Rutgers Eagleton poll. Aug. 14, 2007 [Online]. Available: http://eagletonpoll.rutgers.edu/polls/release_08-14-07.pdf [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]. 8 Ibid. 9 The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas: Podgorski, K. and K. Kockelman, Public Perceptions of Toll Roads: A Survey of the Texas Perspective, Presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., Jan 22-26, 2006 10 NuStats, Austin, Tex, Technical Report of Methods, Nov. 2005 11 NuStates, Austin Tex., Technical Report of Methods, June 2007 12 Sullivan, E., Evaluating the Impacts of the SR 91 Variable-Toll Express Lane Facility Final Report, May 1998 [Online]. Available: www.ceenve3civeng.calpoldy.edu/Sullivan/SR91/final_rpt/FinalRep2000.pdf [accessed Aug. 22, 2007]. 13 Ibid. 14 Sullivan, E., Continuation Study to Evaluating the Impacts of the SR 91 Variable-Toll Express Lane Facility Final Report, Dec. 2000 [Online]. Available: ceenve.calpoly.edu/Sullivan/SR91/final_rpt/FinalRep2000.pdf [accessed Aug. 22, 2007]. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 “Daniels Approval Down to 37 Percent; 30 Percent Against Lease,” Associated Press State and Local Wire, Mar. 5, 2006. 18 Jones, Jami. New coalition calls privatization ‘pawn-shop mentality,’ Land Line Magazine. Feb. 9, 2007 [Online] Available: http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2007/Feb07/SR percent2002-09-07 percent20coalition percent20by percent20JJ.htm [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]. 19 http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2006/12/04/daily15.html (AAA Pocket of Pain survey – 2006) 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 Survey shows Americans prefer to spend more on mass transit and highway maintenance, less on new roads. Smart Growth America. Oct. 25, 2007. [Online] Available: http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/ narsgareport2007.html [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]. 23 Dill, Jennifer. How to Pay for Transportation? A survey of Public Preferences. July 2006. [Online] Available: http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/ipe/pdfs/TransportPaper-Dill_Weinstein.pdf [accessed Oct. 16, 2008]
New Jersey opposition strong among those familiar with proposed deal
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Versus 
Collier threatens to sue Florida over Alley lease
By Tami Osborne, WINK News Oct 15, 2008
COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - If Florida leases Alligator Alley, Collier County says it will sue.
"If that's what it takes to finally, finally get this governor to listen to the constituents, then that's what we need," Alley lease opponent Gina Downs says.
Commissioners told the county attorney to move forward in talks with Broward County, across the Alley, about joining together to sue the state if it leases Alligator Alley.
"Our local officials are hearing us loud and clear. If they have to take it to the next level, I'm proud that they are willing to do it," Downs adds.
While Downs welcomes local lawmakers backing the opinions of many here in Collier, she says it’s sad it has to come down to counties threatening to sue the state to keep a state road from being sold to a private company.
"Shouldn't it be enough that our elected officials speak out against it in five out of 6 counties. Shouldn't it be enough that thousands upon thousands of South Florida people have taken action and spoken out against it? It's a shame. It's a crying shame that that's not enough!" Downs says.
Right now, six groups are putting together proposals to lease the Alley.
Those are due to the state in December.
The counties cannot file a suit of any kind until the state finalizes plans to lease Alligator Alley.
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'Gator Alley's Good Ol' Boys 
Roger Williams rwilliams@floridaweekly.com October 9, 2008
In a matter of days, officials from the Florida Department of Transportation, together with a few local whiz-bangs, will do something new, at least for them: They'll become international traders, even though that's not in their job description.
I, for one, am a little worried, since they'll be dealing with people who know the international ropes, for one thing, and their upfront marching orders from Gov. Charlie Crist are a little too philanthropic, for another.
Boys, the governor told them, I want you to give away the store. (I'm paraphrasing.)
On Oct. 21, 22 and 23, our Florida Good Ol' Boys, hereafter to be known as GOBs, will go one-on-one in meetings with representatives of each of the six companies that aim to make billions of dollars managing Alligator Alley between now and about 2060.
For that, the GOBs hope to get a few million bucks upfront, maybe even a few hundred million, so they can do some roadwork now. (There may be a GOG or two representing us, a Good Ol' Girl, but mostly this is a man's job, I'm sorry to say.)
The chop-licking foreigners, meanwhile, know a plum pudding when they see one.
To them, the Florida GOBs own a 78-mile strip of Collier and Broward counties ultimately worth billions. One top Department of Transportation GOB named Bill Thorp recently estimated that the Alley could be producing $976 million — that's almost a billion — in net revenue just after mid-century, with a $10 toll. And that's just for one year, alone.
All the foreigners have to do is patch the potholes and collect the dollars. (I know, I know, it's a little more complicated than that. And heck, folks, we'd be part of the annual revenue stream — the part way up the creek without a paddle.)
So by giving us a few percentage points of what we're ultimately worth now — a few hundred million or so, which is awfully tempting compared to the paltry $23.5 million the Alley produced last year — these happy foreigners can provide their grandkids with castles overlooking the Mediterranean for the next 25 generations.
Let's look at who will be coming to town to chat with the Florida GOBs about getting this gig, shall we?
It's a diverse, multi-cultural crowd, and widely experienced. We have the Portuguese, the Spanish, the French, the Italians, the Brazilians, and the Goldman Sachsons.
Apparently, the Goldman Sachsons come not only from another continent and another nation, but from another planet. Their CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, received a $67.9 million bonus last December for shaving his head and looking crisp in the boardroom — let me repeat, ala Joe Biden, that's a $67.9 million bonus on top of his salary, which was $18 trillion-billion-gazillion, as my 6-year-old would say.
The Goldman Sachsons, by the way, are in it with a Spanish company. Together, they call themselves Everglades Parkway Partners, and Goldman Sachs is represented in that brotherhood by its new infrastructure investment arm, G.S. Global Infrastructure Partners. (J.P. Morgan and a couple of other American financers are in it with some other foreign competitors, too).
You remember the Spanish: They gave us the Inquisition, which they wrapped up neatly by burning the last few thousand heretics and then sailing into the New World and wiping out a few civilizations (the Maya and the Calusa come to mind). After that tidy bit of overseas management, they went back to the laboratory and created their 20th century model of sweetness and light, Franco, a.k.a. Frankensteino, a dictator who paled in comparison to his contemporaries, Hitler and Stalin. But not by much.
We have the French — and if they built the Maginot Line and maintained it for a month or so in 1940 against the Germans, we don't have to worry about them maintaining Alligator Alley for 50 years.
We have the Portuguese, of course. Good traders, and their national dish is bacalhau, or dried salted cod. So if we give the Alley to them, either we have to leave the Seminoles in charge of food at the one restaurant to be allowed, or we have to suspend the no-drinking-and-driving rule for that 78-mile stretch. Officials at the toll booth could then issue drivers with gallon jugs of the fruity Portuguese wine, Mateus, so they could wash down the bacalhau without having to stop on the pavement to exercise the nausea reflex, after eating dried salted cod.
The Italians. Well, their trains ran on time, but will their highways? I'd be in favor of a move by Gov. Crist to let them manage the food concession, and to send the Seminoles back to the casinos.
And finally we have the Brazilians, of course, who manage their own roadways by building them right to the edge of the rainforest and then destroying it.
They would be my choice, because as beautiful as the French and the Italians are, they aren't as beautiful as the Brazilians — some of the Brazilians. The ones who cut down the rainforest are not beautiful and they don't bathe much, from what I hear. But the ones who live in the wealthier parts of Rio or go to the beach there are very, very beautiful, especially in swim suits. And I assume the Brazilian company could be required contractually by the Florida GOBs to hire only the most beautiful toll collectors. They, in turn, could be required contractually to smile at you when they collect your $10 toll, no matter what they think of you or any American. Then the toll would be mostly painless.
But that brings to mind this question: If gasoline is $3.75 a gallon now, how much will it be by the year 2060? And have the GOBs at the Department of Transportation figured that into their estimates of revenue and royalties?
Because I've done my own estimate — just to help them out, since they have so much on their plates — and I figure that gasoline will average $58 a gallon.
Which means nobody will be driving across Alligator Alley in 50 years, and our children can just give it back to the alligators.
********** Collier joins Broward in opposing Alley lease By Leslie Williams Naples Daily News October 14, 2008 Concerned that state transportation officials believe Collier County’s opposition to a lease of Alligator Alley stems from worries about getting a fair share of the money, county commissioners voted Tuesday to pass a joint resolution with Broward County commissioners opposing the lease. A few hours later, while wrapping up the board meeting with comments from County Attorney Jeff Klatzkow, commissioners expressed support for jointly suing the state over the proposed lease, as well. It is not the first time either county has formally registered opposition to an Alley lease with the state, but Tuesday’s unanimous vote by the Board of County Commissioners represents a show of solidarity between the counties. “Let us reassure you that both counties have opposed the privatization of Alligator Alley from the beginning, we have unanimously passed resolutions expressing the reasons for our opposition, and the opposition to leasing Alligator Alley to foreign firms is overwhelmingly disfavored by our residents,” the letter reads. The letter alleges that Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Kopelousos told a North Florida official that the counties opposed the project “because of a disagreement over which county should receive the larger share of the revenues produced from the proposed concession.” It goes on to state that “the only obvious disagreement is with the Department’s continued rush to lease the Alley in view of opposition from the public and elected officials.” Alligator Alley is a 78-mile portion of Interstate 75, stretching across Collier and Broward counties. Roughly two-thirds of the road lies in Collier County, and by state statute, funds from a private lease of the road must be spent on transportation projects in the two counties. However, the formula for the sharing of revenue between the two counties has been one of many questions raised at meetings with Florida Department of Transportation officials. FDOT officials have maintained that a list of projects would have to be developed and listed by order of priority before that question could be answered. At the last regular meeting Sept. 23, the commission also directed Klatzkow to explore the feasibility of bringing suit against the state regarding the lease. Klatzkow said he subsequently received an unsolicited phone call from the Broward County attorney saying his bosses would like to be involved in bringing a law suit against FDOT. “Do you want me to talk to the attorney in Broward County to see if we can join forces on a suit against the state of Florida?” Klatzkow asked. Without hesitating, the commissioners began nodding, saying Broward’s clear strength in numbers would help bolster a suit against the state. Though the counties are comparable in size, Broward County’s population is about five times that of Collier County.
NAPLES — Rather than try to defeat its neighbors at the money game, Collier County is joining them.
