Gov. Kasich is going to have to stop citing Indiana for his privatization of the Ohio Turnpike

Get the money up front!!!

I travel to Chicago frequently from Cleveland. I no longer take the turnpike. Yes, it’s a little longer to take Rte. 20, and you have to watch out for buggies in northwestern Indiana (one cut right in front on me to go into a gas station — I wonder if they sell oats for the horses there too?), but it’s scenic and it’s free. Ohio turnpike tolls have also nearly doubled in the last couple of years. I can only imagine what they’d be if the turnpike is privatized. I used to take it from Westgate to Elyria for $5.15 just two years ago. Then it was raised to $9. Not worth the money. Rte 2 to Toledo (where you can pick up 20 on the far side of the bypass) is very scenic too and there are a lot of roadside farmer’s stands in the summer and fall. With the money I save, I by produce from Ohio small family farmers.Up yours, Kasich.

Well, Indiana did, but that doesn’t solve the problem.  They now have a lessee who is struggling to make a profit.  That means high toll rates and less maintenance.

True. So we have a no win situation with more taxes on those who cannot afford it.

The problem is (and Kasich consistently ignores this, which is unsurprising), the Ohio Constitution requires that any proceeds of tolls and fees related to the use of highways in Ohio must be spent for highway purposes. So Turnpike tolls can only be spent on the Turnpike or other roads and bridges. 

Uhhh, that is what Indiana did when they leased the Indiana Toll Road. You just read the concession company can’t make their bank loans and is in danger of default.

If the Indiana Concession Company defaults, do you think the bank will run the Indiana Toll Road? No…they will close it down until a buyer can be found, which is something that can’t happen.

So who do you think will have to pickup the tab to keep the Indiana Toll Road open? Yep, you got it, the Indiana Tax Payer.

To borrow a phrase from a Huckleberry former VP candidate who went to Fox TV, I don’t live in Indiana, but I can see it from my back porch.
 
I recall five years ago when Mitch Daniels announced that he had come up with a plan to solve Indiana’s problems (the idea came to him while he was in the shower, or so he said, and I am not making this up) by selling the Indiana Toll Road.  Embraced by the Republican majority in Indianapolis, but rejected by the counties, which actually depended on the toll road to facilitate commerce in their area, the plan was crammed through the legislature.  After six months of heated debate and compromise (mostly compromise because the Indy republicans held a big gun to the citizen’s heads) Mitch got his way.  Before the ink could dry on the lease, someone in the legislature realized that they had sold to a foreign company and a quick amendment had to be inserted to the agreement that they would be required to fly the American flag on the facilities to prevent them from flying a Spanish or Australian banner.
 
As anyone who travels an interstate highway knows, every so many miles there is a paved “turn-a-round” for maintenance, emergency and police vehicles so that they can get to areas of concern like accidents.  The company who held the lease immediately put in permanent metal barricades at these safety points to prevent motorists from turning around.  This, of course, also prevented first responders from having the quickest access to an accident site (and there are many on super highways), so further negotiations had to be made with the company to replace the barricades with movable ones that the fire, ambulance and police could stop at, move out of the way, move through and then replace before proceeding to the accident.  When seconds count for an accident victim!!
 
Indiana’s toll road was never the best maintained before it was sold, primarily because they disbanded their toll road commission and gave control to IDOT.  This resulted in the use of toll revenue for other projects in the state, unlike the charter for the Ohio Turnpike, which requires the revenue to be used on the toll road.  For this reason, maintenance of the Turnpike has always been the highest standard, the road is always cleared of snow, dead animals, tire debris and wrecks and well patrolled by OSHP, which maintains a dedicated crew of Troopers on the Turnpike.  Jerry Wray would say that the Commission pays too much for trucks, too much for maintenance and too much for it’s employees, but I say that it is not the commission but the patrons who demand this kind of service for their tolls. What Kasich and his Pirates do not understand (OK, I know you are thinking that there isn’t much that they DO understand, but stay with me on this point) is that these are services that the turnpike patrons are willing to pay extra for to drive on a well maintained and regulated highway, When they pay extra, they expect extra, and neither ODOT nor a private “concessionaire” will provide that service.  The Turnpike should be a model of what 21st Century roads should be like, but in Indiana and in other states where the only consideration is how much money you can get in the DOT fund you get crappy service at a high price to the consumer. The only consideration for the highway operator should be what the highway’s patrons want, not how much money they can divert to other operations or for profit.  I believe that the Ohio Turnpike Commission has done a good job and that they should keep on doing it.
 
Government should be of the people, by the people and for the people of the state, the citizens and not the corporations.  This is a concept that the partisan, fascist, republicans in this state will never get.