Comments

Posted By ddereamus
Friday, May 30, 2008 - 11:13 PM

Leasing the turnpike is a bad idea and should not happen.  This concept is nearly as bad as his cover all Pennsylvanians health care plan and the I-80 tolls.  When will our Republican members in the General Assembly return to core conservative ideals?

Posted By pattiforker
Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 09:16 AM

Fundamentally I have a hard time believing leasing or selling our roads could ever be better for us.  Obviously the company or country bidding on the lease is doing so to make money.  If they can make money, why can’t we figure out a way to make it work.  What other states have done this and how is it working for them.  I would rather see tolls on I-80 and not give away our rights to a major road system.

Posted By pjc949
Thursday, June 05, 2008 - 08:58 PM

Opposed to the Turnpike Lease

In its broadest terms, leasing the PA Turnpike makes sound fiscal sense.  My opposition is based on political not economic terms.

Economically, trends support the proposal.  The largest item in the average worker’s budget is taxes.  Want to know who holds you back from achieving greater wealth look only to state, federal and local governments which take 40% of your earnings.  For 10% of your budget you get all the food you can eat.  From the money you send to the government an elected official plasters the highway with advertisements every two years.  For 28% of your budget you get a comfortable roof over your head and shelter from the rain.  From money you send to the government you get a monument or museum to visit.  For 8% of your budget you have access to your car, the gas to run it and the hidden cost in depreciation.  From the PA government you drive on some of the poorest roads in the nation. 
Even with the enormous resources taken by the government, it continues to spend more than it receives.  Unfunded liabilities, promises made like Social Security, Medicare, student subsistence and debt amount to 75 trillion dollars nationally and Pennsylvania has its fair share.  The number is so huge it is unfathomable, but America is a productive prospers nation.  Various government sources hold assets equal to $75 trillion.  Assets like the PA turnpike.  As sources of government revenue, i.e. taxes, become harder to come by the economic solution is sell assets to pay off the incurred debt.  The same thinking a responsible citizen would have when confronted with a similar problem.

I heard arguments that the turnpike is worth more than the $12 billion offered.  It may be, but someone offered $12 billion so that is what it is worth.  The interest generated from the billions in the bank would earn the state nearly a billion dollars a year according to economic projections.  Based on historical data, the interst money could indeed be generated.

But this is politics not economics.  Government bureaucrats would spend the money on more programs and giveaways.  No state, federal or local official would tolerate $12 billion sitting in a bank account, they would spend it.  They would not stop at $12 billion.  They will spend $24 billion on new programs and a little more to benefit themselves.  Citizens may vote against it, but a judge will over rule the vote.  Citizens may protest as they have, but the government will proceed without consensus.  There is not enough money that can ever be produced that will satisfy this lust.  The unstated goal of government is to take all your money, every single dime so that the citizenry no longer has faith in himself or his God but must bow down to the will of secular control by government to feed his family.

Leasing the Turnpike starts Pennsylvania citizens on the path to their own personal destruction.

Paul Cmil
Allentown