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Republican Platform Amended to Oppose HOT Lanes

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This weekend’s Republican State Convention was a victory for party members and citizens of North Carolina opposed to the NCDOT’s plans to add High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. With overwhelming support, two amendments were added to the platform that demonstrate the Party’s opposition to the plan to implement HOT lanes on I-77 and other highways in North Carolina. Below is a press release issued by the group TollFreeNC.Org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Vallee Bubak

valleebubak@gmail.com
or (303) 946-5852

TollFreeNC.Org Formed to Fight Toll Projects Across
North Carolina
Citizen’s Group WidenI77.Org Expands to Form a
Statewide Anti-Toll Movement

Charlotte, N.C. – June 10, 2013 – Citizen’s group WidenI77.Org announced today it is taking its anti-toll movement across the state of North Carolina by forming a new organization called TollFreeNC.Org. Grassroots activists across the state will be joining forces to stop the NCDOT’s plans to partner with private companies to toll highways. WidenI77.Org has gathered more than 3,000 signatures, received more than 19,000 hits to its website and garnered regular news coverage in its fight to stop a plan to toll I-77 from Charlotte to Mooresville by a private, for-profit company under a 50-year contract.

At the Republican State Convention in Charlotte yesterday, supporters of TollFreeNC.Org helped to amend the Republican platform to oppose toll lanes for North Carolina. The platform now says under Article II: The Economy, 8. “We oppose any plans for or legislation in favor of HOT lanes.” And in Article III: Individual Liberty, 7, it says, “We oppose government-sanctioned tracking of drivers to enforce occupancy rates on our highways.”

“Costly and lengthy 50+ year contracts with private toll companies defy
common sense, good government and sound fiscal policy while inviting crony
capitalism,” said Vallee Bubak, volunteer for TollFreeNC.Org. “We invite
citizens across North Carolina to join our efforts to stop the government’s toll
lane agenda – a scheme that will hurt our people and our state.”

TollFreeNC.Org opposes private-public-partnership tolling projects and
HOT lanes since they:

  • Place burdensome
    fees on drivers and businesses
  • Leave taxpayers at risk of a bailout
  • Cost hundreds of millions more
    to build and operate than regular lanes
  • Do not solve
    congestion and instead
    increase traffic in regular lanes since they take over existing HOV lanes
  • Divert traffic to secondary
    roads in towns and neighborhoods
  • Relinquish control of our roads to private and most likely foreign companies with 50 + year contracts

Bubak added, “NCTollFree.Org believes that by managing the taxpayer funds more efficiently and reprioritizing critical road projects, North Carolina does not need to buy into the toll lane agenda that is being pushed by private tolling consultants and developers seeking their own gain at the public’s expense. Toll lanes are just one more way bureaucrats and unelected entities can take money from the people. Furthermore, they place another unfair burden on future generations, and relinquish control of our roads to private companies.”

About TollFreeNC.Org

TollFreeNC.Org is an organization with the goal of stopping tolls lanes in North Carolina. The organization advocates fiscal responsibility and principled leadership for meeting the state’s highway transportation needs. TollFreeNC.Org will distribute information to inform the public about the toll lane issue and plans, and work with political organizations across the state to distribute information to voters and political activists. For more information about the North Carolina toll lane plans, please visit www.tollfreenc.org.

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