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How would you feel about your state government or the federal selling parts of their highway systems and roads to gain revenue? Most states are low or running low on money, they have assets that the state or federal government could sell to private investors.
Private investors would then turn these roads and highways into toll roads. They would be responsible to maintain and keep them in good working order for the commuters who need to use them. All profits from the toll would be kept by the private company and their investors. The state/fed makes money selling them off, and saves money not having to maintain them any longer.
Well, we have a privately run Toll Road going through Orlando and a portion of Florida. It's a toss up between having to pay whatever they choose to charge and knowing you have a great route available to save time on a well maintained highway. I guess the positives and the negatives could be discussed till the cows come home.....but they will come home faster on the private owned road.
It's a way of life in Chicago. Chicago Skyway, a toll road, is privately owned. All the parking meters in Chicago are privately owned. That is creating real problems. Drivers' anger over meters boiling over into a boycott :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Carol Marin (http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/1493738,CST-EDT-Carol25.article - broken link)
Now the czar, I mean mayor wants to sell the airports. And the fun goes on
As a trucker, I've been following this debate closely. Most of us in the trucking industry think it's a bad deal from many perspectives. As Roaddog's already pointed out; we the people have already paid to have 'em built. Letting a private entity maintain them raises LOTS of questions; Would the toll increases be reasonable? What happens if the private company goes belly up? Will they be able to do things like prevent a state from building competing free routes i.e. a state highway that runs paralell to the toll road? Could the company force the state to install traffic lights on nearby U.S. & state highways to make them less attractive to motorists?
If the typical household needs more income to run it, people cut back in services and goods that they buy from others, they cut back on most everything they can. They try to create more income coming into the family budget however when this isn’t met they then start selling off part of their assets, first the collection of old 45rpm records, then the extra HD TV, next they sell some of the clothing, one by one things start getting sold off from their home. Governments (local & fed) aren’t any different. We’re going to see government owned land being sold, then it will be items like roads, state parks, federal land (old military bases) and national treasures like parks, roads and highways well go. They are too costly to maintain and it brings in money.
I hadn't heard about this but it could be because I haven't read about it yet. I worked for the state highway department in Kentucky for 26 years. Some districts in the state contract out a lot of the work to save money. Sounds funny to have so many workers on your payroll state wide and it's cheaper to hire private contractors. The state maintains federal highways (in this part of the state that would be US 45, US 41 and 41A, US 68, US 62, etc.) and is reimbursed by the federal government. In this part of the state we still do the snow and ice removal. If it gets bad they do have contracts with local farmers with tractors that have front wheel assist with a 12 ft. blade. In eastern and northern Kentucky we have heard they contract out the snow and ice removal but one year the contractor's drivers refused to go out. Said it wasn't safe! Did it many years for it not to be safe! lol
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
13,387 posts, read 19,432,243 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AksarbeN
How would you feel about your state government or the federal selling parts of their highway systems and roads to gain revenue? Most states are low or running low on money, they have assets that the state or federal government could sell to private investors.
Private investors would then turn these roads and highways into toll roads. They would be responsible to maintain and keep them in good working order for the commuters who need to use them. All profits from the toll would be kept by the private company and their investors. The state/fed makes money selling them off, and saves money not having to maintain them any longer.
What do you think?
HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!........We already have TOO many Toll roads in OK!!!!!!!!!!!
If they are taking free roads and turning them into toll roads I would oppose it. If they are turning an existing toll road, poorly maintained, run by an inefficient govt, bloated with high paid politicians who sell contracts to their supporters. Sell it get the cash and let someone who knows what they are doing run it. I'm from Illinois, where politicians are so crooked they get screwed into the ground when they die.
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