Response to NC Chamber’s “NC Can’t Afford To Wait” Infrastructure Campaign
Dear NC Chamber of Commerce,
“Coalition for a Prosperous Future” is a catchy program name and if no one understands the long term implications of Public Private Partnerships (P3’s) and tolling that are included in the plan, it might be commendable but unfortunately it is the wrong way for our State due to those two funding features. With this plan, our State Chamber of Commerce and our State Legislature are leading us down a path that will damage North Carolina for decades and make us less competitive with other State’s that are finding less damaging solutions to their infrastructure funding shortfall.
As you may know, both political parties are supporting P3 and tolling as a “magic potion” for funding infrastructure. “No new taxes” sounds good but it is really just kicking the cost of today’s needs to our children and their children and making their world less competitive, more costly, and restrictive for travel. For those not informed, here is what is happening in Washington and how it is forcing us to consider such damaging concepts as the privatization of our public infrastructure.
The Partnership to Build America is a bipartisan example of how Washington plans to “solve” the infrastructure problem. This vision for funding transportation infrastructure leverages $50 billion in bonds to capture $750 billion in investment – have you heard that before? In Lake Norman, the NC DOT is leveraging $162 million for a $655 million toll road (I-77). The plan does this without raising taxes! Sounds great!! $750 billion and no tax increase!! Problem solved and the politicians can avoid a tough decision today – to bad kids! But how do you generate $750 billion if you don’t do some form of tax increase (I.e. a gas tax increase/vehicle owner fee)? What you do – and it is hidden in the bill – is you allow the States to toll all existing interstates! There are a couple versions of this legislation hiding in the House and Senate committees. Not even “60 Minutes” can get them to talk! Congress knows the American citizen and informed business leaders would strongly object – so do it in the dark and do it before they know what happened.
The clear downside of this “fairy dust” approach to “solving” the infrastructure funding issue is that the secondary roads will become primary for many commuters/commercial vehicles. The results of that approach include: Increased wear and tear on roads not designed for the weight and traffic; higher county/city taxes to fund secondary road repair/expansion; increased congestion on un-tolled lanes/roads; increased cost of goods; increased travel time for commercial traffic; increased travel cost; reduced tourism travel; and the list goes on. Another obvious downside is that the infrastructure and bureaucracy required to track the traffic and collect the fees adds no value to a transportation system. They only add cost, aggravation and more intrusion into our privacy and how we live our lives. This is a bad idea and both Parties in Washington are sneaking it thru right now! Rep. Pittenger, Sen. Tillis, Gov. McCrory and others are supporting the P3/tolling idea. So are the NC and Charlotte Chambers. That doesn’t mean it is smart. It is just politically popular with those who put staying in power in front of solving problems. To harsh? They do have a lot on their plate – maybe they are just uninformed. I doubt most who support this even know what they are really rubber stamping with this P3/tolling non-solution.
The NC Chamber is well connected to leaders who may know how to “play the game” but in the end they have a responsibility to the future. Business leaders need to be changing the core tenants of the “Coalition for a Prosperous Future” to other more traditional solutions. The Chambers need to be guiding our elected leaders towards an increase in the federal gas tax and gradual shift to a vehicle owner based fee. President Reagan understood that and in 1992 he had the courage to tell our Country that we needed to increase the gas tax to cover the cost of a first rate infrastructure that supports commerce. For over 20 years we have had that same federal gas tax – 18 cents per gallon. It is worth 40% of what it was in 1993 while the population has increased by nearly 60 million people. An increase in the gas tax is supported by many organizations (AAA, trucking associations, common sense, etc.). Our leaders need to stop drinking the kool-aid and get back to basics. There is no magic potion to solve our funding issue – privatizing our public infrastructure using our pension funds and children’s future is the worst possible thing we could do.
I have not come to these conclusions casually. It has required a lot of work and study. Here are a few links that I think illustrate how much momentum this P3 Tolling approach has:
http://delaney.house.gov/infrastructure/information-on-congressman-delaneys-infrastructure-bill
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0KZ00320150126?irpc=932
And here are a few links that show opposition and consequences of the P3 tolling models being proposed by Congress and approved by the NC State Legislature:
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/11/19/how-macquarie-makes-money-by-losing-money-on-toll-roads/
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/11/20/the-great-traffic-projection-swindle/
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/2014/08/10/The-P3-dilemma-How-effective-are-public-private-partnerships/stories/201408080169
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/08/11/The-P3-dilemma-Partnerships-often-fall-short-of-taxpayers-expectations/stories/201408110002
I hope you have taken the time to read these articles. There is a very big downside to the path the Congress, State and Chambers are taking us. Keep it simple. We can’t afford … to do this with privatization of public infrastructure and tolls.
Respectfully,
Vince Winegardner
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