02.20.07

Sen. Carona Announces Special Hearing On Transportation Policy

Posted in 80th Legislature, Around The State, Privatization, Road Issues at 12:17 pm by wcnews

The Press Release and Witness Form can be found here (.PDF). Here is the hearing notice, mark you calendars it’s Thursday March 1, 2007, 8:30 am – 6:00 pm. Here’s what Sen. Carona said in the press release:

“We have initiated some sweeping changes in transportation policy over the last four years,” said Carona. “The state has aggressively pursued a new toll policy, rapidly expanded the use of public-private partnerships for transportation infrastructure, and accelerated the process of developing the Trans Texas Corridor. In the process, we clearly have not fully heard or taken into consideration the views of the public. Before we go any further, the policy makers need to hear from the people.”

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“Except for a few expert witnesses, the hearing is dedicated to listening to public concerns,” said Carona. “Anyone at all who wants to testify can submit a quick witness form in advance of the hearing, or at the hearing.”

One of the expert witnesses will be Dennis Enright of NW financial Group. If his testimony is anything like what he delivered last week (.PDF) at a Congressional sub-committee hearing we’re in for quite a treat and so are all the TTC and toll road supporters. In it Enright goes through the history of public-private partnerships (PPP’s or P3′s), what works, what doesn’t, and why. The basic answer is that there is a much cheaper way to pay for roads – a higher gas tax, or tolls to pay off the road and/or to pay for future transportation projects. Not tolls for corporate profits.

In his testimony he references projects, P3′s, he studied in Chicago and Indiana, that are similar to the TTC. He states that those projects , “..w[ere] the first time that the P3 mandate was utilized to increase costs to the users rather than decrease costs through the application of improved efficiency of the private sector”. Read that a couple of times if you must. What he’s saying is that historically with these partnerships the savings have been passed on to the consumer/taxpayer. With these “new” P3′s the cost to the consumer/taxpayer is increased to maximize corporate profits. He also tells us about the difference between previous goals of toll roads and those of a P3:

Previously toll roads were financed using an underlying assumption that increases would only be imposed based upon the revenue need of the toll road authority and that would be driven primarily by expectations about traffic flows and capital needs. The ability or desire to maximize the bottom line returns through compounding annual increase in tolls was never considered since the agencies that owned the toll roads were driven by a public policy mandate that treasured minimizing tolls.

Again what he’s saying is that corporate profits trump what’s good for the consumer/taxpayer. This coupled with non-compete agreements give these corporations a monopoly over our the highways of our state for the foreseeable future and new roads will only be built if they’re profitable.

I would encourage every Texan to go to this hearing if possible. Sen. Carona is having a 9.5 hour hearing. Texans will have three minutes to testify and can submit unlimited testimony in writing. Sen. Carona deserves much credit for giving us this opportunity. Contact him and thank him.

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