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COUNT US! Blogs Toll 69 Spanish Privatization? One thing that we should explain is our jump from privatization to "spanish company". Governor Daniels has pointed toward the privatized Chicago Toll way and has just come back from studying I-69 privatization in Texas. Both are "leased to Cintra-Zachry. Take a few minutes to look at Daniels turns to the flawed Texas toll/ privatization tactics for funding We are informed that there are no private North American toll operation companies. If you know differently, please, let us know. The Elkart Truth has uncovered who is bidding on the Indiana Toll Roads: Elkhart Truth Regarding the proposed amount of toll for I-69, 3C in Indiana: Daniels' plan includes roughly doubling the tolls for the Indiana Toll Road that runs east-west across the northern part of the state. To travel 157 miles across the state, tolls would go from $4.65 to $8 for cars and $14.55 to $32 for heavy trucks. http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/OPINION01Daniels will not estimate the amount of the I-69 toll, but the 3C route from I-64 to I-465 would be approximately 130 miles*, so here is a direct correlation to what he has proposed for our existing toll road;
**mapquest.com ***Note, truckers will pay 4 times as much. One might assume that more profit by higher tolls would be expected by the private company to build a new terrain toll venture than to lease an existing one with a track record as a toll road, but we allow that this is not true here. Tolling only looks Fiscally responsible" if you are a shallow thinker Tolling as "fiscal point of view", looks good if you are the Spanish developer. Here is how it will work: Anyone who has read the economic sections of the EIS(1) for I-69 will see that even as a "free highway", there is no overall economic benefit*. There is less return on investment for the entire state of Indiana than the cost to build, much less maintain such a structure. The first page of the first chapter of the Tier 1 I-69, 3C EIS states that I-69 will not work as a Toll Road! Adding to the cost, by paying a profit to investors is not going to make the traffic increase and improve this return on investment. Tolling will decrease access and use. Therefore, we expect seen from a business perspective even more loss of capital can be predicted. In order to attract a private toll road operator the state will likely have to guarantee a profit, forgo significant leasing fees and provide a large amount of taxpayer capital as well. State funds will be justified as "expected economic growth that would not come without I-69. No study of I-69 has ever concluded that growth will equal costs, but this doesn't deter the proponents of I-69 from claiming development as the reason for I-69. In fact the study only must prove that I-69 will build the NAFTA highway to achieve it's stated goal. Economic benefit to Indiana is not a goal, it is a selling tool. The profits needed for the private and the public sector will not come, as is documented by the EIS(1) data if not conclusions. Hoosiers will pay more than we would have paid without the private investor. We will pay through tolls as a user tax + distribution of existing Indiana gas tax generated funds and later through increased state wide taxes necessary to boost Indiana's budget for this now known unaffordable expense. If I-69 is approved, it will be at a great stress on the State of Indiana's budget, based on an unfounded believe that the project is a sound business venture. When the EIS predicted shortfalls demand new revenues from taxpayers, legislator will use the "we are surprised" defense. (1) EIS? OK, EIS stands for "Environmental Impact Study". It is mandated by the NEPA laws which stand for National Environmental Protection Act. If the hair on your neck stands up when you hear "Environmental" please realize in this case Environment includes all things human made as well as all things natural. So educated analysts evaluate data and provide statistical likelihood of economic success as well as effects on life forms and life supporting structures found in nature. Discounting these analysis and going with the idea that "common sense" says building I-69 will bring a profit would be like saying NASA should fire all the engineers and scientist and just have factory workers build the next level of space vehicle. You can study the completed Tier 1 of the I-69, section 3, EIS of one of thirty-two mandatory EIS study sections nation wide at http://deis.i69indyevn.org/FEIS/index.html. Reading many of it's 3000 pages is what we base our much of our analysis. We don't trust the authors, Bernardin, Lochmueller and Associates (BLA) from Evansville, but we are confident that their bias is pro rather than anti I-69, so as hard as they have tried (again 3000 pages and growing) they have had no success in proving I-69 will provide a benefit other than 9 minutes travel savings in a 130+ mile trip. We have found no other benefit or "profit". By-the-way, in order for I-69 to be completed in Indiana, three more EIS must be done, Sections 1 and 2 have not been started. Section 4 from Henderson Kentucky to I-64 north of Evansivlle is slightly behind, the hotly contested section 3, but it has been ignored in the latest INDOT ten year funding stream. Oh well, that bridge over the Ohio wasn't important, the trucks will find a way to access I-69 somehow, someway must be Daniels thinking... or should we say hope. Toll 69 as a lease/ privatization scheme is the real perversion, Indiana Counties will lose tax base. The supreme court has said that if property is taken by eminent domain, the developer must return a higher tax return to the government. Property tax to the counties paid now by all those who would lose their property to I-69 would not be paid at all, because Indiana will put the property in the name of the State and "lease" this at what we expect to be an insignificant amount or at least result in no return to the counties. That lost income to the counties will be made up by the remaining property owners in each county. If the private company would pay the existing property tax for the land taken for the project, this would be a new fixed cost for the private toll company that would further insure financial failure due to increased "profit" losses. Double Taxation: Also remember that every hoosier who uses gas purchased in Indiana is paying the existing gas tax that pays for the rest of the states roads, so every mile of toll road, the motorist is under two tax systems, the conventional gas tax and also the user tax. This double taxation is an unfair compared to other state roads. As a Toll Road, fewer will use the road. Based on the proposed rate of toll Daniels is requesting on the north Indiana Toll road, commercial truckers will pay 4 times as much as motorists to use I-69 and a single trip from I-64 near Evansville to I-465 at Indy will likely cost a trucker $26.50. Now ask yourself, how many NAFTA truckers are going to use I-69 when it is 84 miles longer than using I-55 and I-70 to pass between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and arrive at Canada at Port Huron, Michigan? Will the 12,305 trucks that INDOT estimated will save 2666 hours per day really choose this route with the new tolling proposals in Texas and Indiana. 12,305 trucks per day was what it took to almost break even in the Economic Study of I-69/ EIS. (2) If one believes tolling will not decrease the use, We have a number of great bridge locations available for development in Gibson, Pike, and Monroe Counties! The opportunities abound, get in early... invest now! This lease/ privatization is a loan shark deal. Daniels is bound by the Indiana Constitution that requires a balanced budget. There is no money to build I-69, or even a quarter of what former INDOT commissioner Brian Nicol proposed. Maintaining Indiana's already 4th highest density interstate system in the USA is already a "taxing" feat. This lease/privatization scheme will allow "private" money to get I-69 building started. Daniels calls this mixed funding, telling evansville the private funds will be a small part, so make no mistake tax dollars are necessary to sell this project to any toll road operating company. Even if a two term Governor, Daniels will be long gone when the big bills start rolling in. BTW, we are told there are no private USA toll companies so, Spain is starting to look like where you might want to be if you have negotiated a sweet enough deal through guarantees and anti competition agreements. The Supreme Court expects a greater property tax return through eminent domain privatization. We are used to transportation projects of the State that take land by eminent domain from our tax rolls for transportation, so with the hybridization of this "private" transportation project, this will likely be ignored. When Toll 69 doesn't provide enough profit to the private company in say 10 years, it will be up to the State to figure out how to make up the difference. Even lacking a profit guarantee, the private developer will go bankrupt with the same result... the State will pick up the liability. Presto! I-69 debt with the necessity of higher taxes or more privatized bonding interest payments instead of products and services for our tax dollars. This "privatization" in the purest form, directly from State's Taxpayers to interest payments of bond holders. As our state becomes less fiscally sound, the percentage rate of tax-free interest paid to bond buyers increases. (2) A little lie in the I-69 study we quoted above. The number of trucks and the freight hours that we quote above are documented on COUNT US! at http://www.i69tour.org/freight.html . We had to reverse the math to prove this, but it is very simple and can be understood with very little time on that page. The manipulation of the number of trucks likely to use 3C is suspect and perhaps reverse engineered to create a hoped "benefit", but the data behind the data is even more suspect. If one looks into this section of the EIS, it is documented as based on a William Black study of freight shipping in the region currently. The former INDOT Commissioner William Black, now a Professor in SPEA at IU, was told that his numbers were being used this way in the EIS for I-69. It is reported to COUNT US! Black said; This is a misuse of my data. Most of that freight is coal on trains going to Chicago. It is not going to be loaded on trucks and driven to Detroit because of building I-69. The concept of "fiscal conservatism" with a "privatized Toll 69" vs "understanding" and our failed media. Unfortunately, simple concepts seem to win out over studied understanding in the public opinion arena. Hurricane Katrina proved that the "free press" will only do their job of balancing against the branches of government if the water is rising around their necks side by side with the powerless. Otherwise citizen's comments are contemptible and official comments are gospel. Journalist fear of drowning in New Orleans was an interesting moment in our nation's constitutional democracy from our point of view. The only time that the "free press" has worked in our memory. Normally "truth" seems to only work as broad concepts that seem to be common sense spoken officially. I-69 will not really take away Bloomington's freeway to Indianapolis... just make it longer. Some in Bloomington and Bedford just could not believe that Mitch Daniels would propose to toll Indiana 37, because, "how would we get to Indianapolis?" COUNT US! has calculated the distance of the remaining "free-way" to Indianapolis from Bloomington. According to MapQuest.com, seventeen miles and 30 more minutes is the difference between the shorter Toll 69 and the State Road 48 to Spencer then 231 to I-70 (or SR 67). From the IU, Indiana Daily Student <http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=31613>: Daniels
encouraged Bloomington residents to shoulder the proposed I-69 tolls
for the good of the state."
COUNT US! adds... Oh, yeah...right.... more like, Bloomington/ Bedford
pay up and shut up, we are saving Evansville 9 minutes to I-465 and
giving them a straighter road to return from IU tailgate parties.
Monroe County was one of two counties that voted for Kernan in the 2004
Governor's election as we remember."I-69 will link the small towns to the national economy so that every part of Indiana has a chance to flourish," he said last week in Bloomington. Bedford residents hoping to preserve a freeway route to Indianapolis should check out the removal of the frontage roads for I-69 in Bloomington. COUNT US! has the only detailed coverage of this issue at: http://www.i69tour.org/sec5crosssections.html It is not too late for Bedford residents to comment to the Tier 2 DEIS for I-69 past Bloomington at: http://www.i69indyevn.org/Section_5/index.html |
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| So...will I-69 be built
toll or not toll? No... COUNT US! has predicted for some time now that when gasoline prices regularly are $3.50 per gallon, the USA will recognize the efficiency of rail transport for goods and people and there will be a nation wide recognition that our rail infrastructure must be modernized for our country to prosper. The gas price spike of $3 after Katrina has reinforced our belief in this formula. Commuter rail travel in the Gary Indiana area to Chicago jumped from 40,000 to 60,000 daily riders. The 2005 national labor day travel weekend saw an unexpected low number of motorists. The nation found the price that could change the USA travel behavior. We still believe that it will take $3.50 as Americans will learn to accept $3+ but the change will come. News reports of three business quarters in a row of Amtrak profitability enhanced with journalistic reporting of happy commuters reading books on their way to work instead of stop-and-go angered car commutes and the nation will beg for the change. Politicians and the private sector will happily oblige. The Texas Toll I-69 Corridor is massive. It includes a high speed rail component in the median of the car traffic infrastructure. COUNT US! has documented one Texas politician telling his constituents that add-ons like the high speed rail are just to keep the project moving and they will be forgotten in the future. We would warn him, "Careful what you wish for... It might happen." If I-69 is built, it might be as our nation's first high speed rail corridor. If so, COUNT US! will not be among the opposition. That would make sense. |
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