Major Deficit Spending Moves

Major Moves Sale of the Indiana Toll Road was Mitch Daniels' cover for major deficit spending.

(Daniels proclaimed Indiana Bankrupt as a candidate for governor, now he is doing it. Major Moves/ Privatized Tolling was supposed to be the financial savior of Indiana, instead it has been the catalyst for "drunken sailor spending".)

Hoosiers were sold Privatized Tolling with the promise of $3.85 Billion Dollars:

Bloomberg.com reported it this way

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ae6qaLAI2BVo&refer=us

Macquarie-Cintra's $3.85 Bln Bid for Indiana Toll Road Approved

(EXCERPT)

It would be the second existing toll road in the U.S. to be leased to private operators, after the city of Chicago last year sold its only toll road, the 7.8-mile Chicago Skyway, to Cintra- Macquarie.

Virginia, Texas

While less than 30 of the 5,244 miles of U.S. toll roads are currently run by private operators, there are some $25 billion of private investments proposed or committed for new and existing toll roads in six states including Virginia, Texas and Oregon, according to a report by the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, which advocates for such privatization.

Sydney-based Macquarie Infrastructure Group, the world's largest developer of toll roads, and Madrid-based Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA are among a handful of companies seeking to build and operate toll roads in the U.S. and profit from raising tolls and installing electronic toll collection to cut costs.

In both Indiana and Chicago, Cintra-Macquarie offered about 40 times the annual revenue of the roads. The Indiana Toll Road carries more than 50 million vehicles a year and generated $95.6 million of revenue in the 12 months ended June 30, according to Indiana Department of Transportation data.

Investment banks are also looking to broker such deals. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., last year's No. 1 mergers arranger, stands to collect about $20 million in fees as Indiana's adviser, according to state documents.

New York-based Goldman is working on similar transactions being considered in other regions such as St. Louis and Houston.

Differences Resolved

Jay Kenworthy, a spokesman for the Indiana Senate Republicans, said the major sticking point in negotiations was the route of a new road that would run from Indianapolis south to Evansville, and whether it would be a toll road built and operated by private companies as Daniels has proposed.

The compromise legislation would maintain most of the current route of the proposed extension of Interstate 69, leaving open the possibility of rerouting the road in Indianapolis. It allows for a private operator to put tolls on most of the road, except for the 40-mile stretch south of Indianapolis.

The legislation also provides a toll freeze for all passenger vehicles on the Indiana Toll Road until electronic tolling is put in place, which Cintra-Macquarie must install by 2008. After that, a discounted rate would be available to residents who use electronic tolling.

On March 15th, 2006 hours after the passage of Major Moves, The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette tallied the promises made for Distribution of the $3.85 Billion Dollars Promised Indiana from the Privateer Tolling Consortium.

Lawmakers are expecting a $3.85 billion check if they approve the Major Moves transportation initiative today. But the numbers show they already have spent it and more. This does not count any interest the state might earn on some of the money while it sits in a bank account, nor the potential cost of pension protections in the bill.

$2.8 billion – to cover transportation shortfall and build hundreds of road projects

$500 million – goes into a transportation trust fund for future generations

$200 million – split between five counties along the Toll Road at $40 million each

$40 million – split between Lake and Porter counties – the remaining Toll Road counties

$278 million – cost of a quasi-toll freeze for commuters over the next 10 years

$150 million – distributed to all cities, towns and counties around the state for road projects

$125 million – retire Toll Road bonds after using Toll Road account reserves

With seemingly unlimited money from his foreign benefactors, Less than a month later, Daniels announced that Major Moves would fund large increases in State Trooper wages and hire hundreds of additional State Police...

The Daniels administration said the raises for the troopers and others will total $5.2 million.

The money will come from a pending lease of the Indiana Toll Road to a private, foreign consortium. In addition to the companies giving the state an upfront payment of $3.8 billion to operate the northern Indiana highway and collect its toll revenue for 75 years, it will pay $6 million annually for troopers to patrol to road.

That will free up $6 million annually in state money that will be used to fund the pay raises. The state also plans to provide each trooper with a new laptop computer and add 250 portable 800 megahertz radios.

Capitol Police will receive minimum increases of 4 percent, and motor carrier inspectors will get raises ranging from 3 percent to 10 percent. Conservation officers, excise police and gaming commission officers will receive the same range of

Daniels announces pay raise for troopers
Some will get as much as 20 percent increase.
MIKE SMITH/ Assoicated Press Writer

The raises will effectively be funded from money the state plans to get from leasing the Indiana Toll Road to a private, foreign consortium. They were set higher at the front end in hopes of recruiting more troopers. The state has 1,095 troopers but wants to add 210 more over the next 18 months.

This can be seen as a lowering of income: $3.85 billion was only the working bid... it seems the deal was worth $2.55 billion:

It seems the state has only $2.55 billion to spend on all those projects Daniels promised his backers.

The transcript below looses a lot of the detail in audio not available here. It does not provide the numbers given, so thus far this is a bit confusing but according to the INDOT spokesperson, that is not enough to fund all of INDOT's ten year plan.

This is a transcript from a News Broadcast from WFIU radio 103.7, Bloomington aired April 17th, 2006:

Hoosiers were sold Privatized Tolling with the promise of $3.85 Billion Dollars:

Since Major Moves passed, the seemingly MAJOR FUNDS have been dwindling and the accounting is looking about as shady as the books of some other scams. COUNT US! dedicates this page to tracking the Drunken Sailor spending of post Major Moves, Indiana Governor, Mitch Daniels:

With seemingly unlimited money from his foreign benefactors, Less than a month later, Daniels announced that Major Moves would fund large increases in State Trooper wages and hire hundreds of additional State Police...

This can be seen as a lowering of income: $3.85 billion was only the working bid... it seems the deal was worth $2.55 billion: