Kasich: Ohio Turnpike plan will fund road projects

JOHN SEEWER

JULIE CARR SMYTH

Asso­ci­ated Press

TOLEDO — High­way and bridge con­struc­tion projects put on hold a year ago for as many as two decades will be sped up under a pro­posal to use the Ohio Turn­pike to raise as much as $3 bil­lion for roadwork.

And it will be done with­out huge toll increases or giv­ing away con­trol of the turn­pike, Gov. John Kasich said Thursday.

The plan comes two years after Kasich first floated the idea of get­ting more money out of the north­ern Ohio route that links the East Coast with the Mid­west, sug­gest­ing Ohio fol­low the lead of other states and cities that have pock­eted cash for their toll roads.

County lead­ers along the turn­pike objected loudly to leas­ing the turn­pike, fear­ing that a pri­vate oper­a­tor would elim­i­nate jobs, spend less on main­tain­ing the road and impose higher tolls that would drive traf­fic onto local routes that mean­der through small towns.

“Peo­ple need to under­stand we’ve lis­tened to them,” Kasich said. “This turn­pike will remain a valu­able asset, and we will be able to unlock value in this turn­pike for decades to come.”

The pro­posal cen­ters on rais­ing $1.5 bil­lion through bond sales backed by future toll rev­enues. Up to an addi­tional $1.5 bil­lion could be gen­er­ated by match­ing local and fed­eral funds.

Nearly three dozen multimillion-dollar road projects slated for the com­ing years were put on hold or delayed sig­nif­i­cantly last Jan­u­ary because the state’s trans­porta­tion depart­ment said there just wasn’t enough money.

The turn­pike financ­ing plan, which will need some leg­isla­tive approval, would erase a $1.6 bil­lion high­way bud­get deficit, said Ohio Trans­porta­tion Direc­tor Jerry Wray. “We are going to move 20 years of projects into six years,” he said.

Most of the new money — per­haps 90 per­cent — would be spent on projects in coun­ties in the north­ern third of Ohio, pri­mar­ily those above U.S. Route 30.

That also would free more money to spend in the rest of the state, back­ers of the pro­posal said.

Democ­rats accused Kasich of essen­tially bor­row­ing against the future and raid­ing the turn­pike to spread money on projects across the state.

“There is no finer oper­ated high­way in the coun­try,” said state Rep. Ron Ger­berry, a Demo­c­rat from Austin­town in north­east Ohio. “Why are we try­ing to fix some­thing that works? I guess the answer is because there’s a pot of gold.”

Under the proposal:

— Tolls would be frozen for the next 10 years on pas­sen­ger car trips of less than 30 miles that are paid for with an EZ pass.

— Toll increases would be capped for longer trips and trucks at the rate of infla­tion, which is less than pre­vi­ous toll hikes.

— No turn­pike employ­ees would be laid off.

— The Ohio Turn­pike Com­mis­sion would be renamed the Ohio Turn­pike and Infra­struc­ture Com­mis­sion and remain a pub­lic entity.

Gary Tiboni, pres­i­dent of the Team­sters local that rep­re­sents close to 800 turn­pike work­ers, said he was relieved the pro­posal will not change how the turn­pike oper­ates. “The gov­er­nor got it right. It keeps my peo­ple work­ing,” he said.

Kasich said he rejected the idea of leas­ing the toll road even though it would have brought more money because the state would have lost con­trol over the roadway.

Ohio Truck­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Larry Davis said rais­ing money through bonds is a bet­ter deci­sion than leas­ing or sell­ing the toll road.

“It makes more sense to lever­age the value of what we already have to bet­ter our state’s roads and bridges than to roll the dice on an out­side oper­a­tor,” he said.

A group of county offi­cials in north­ern Ohio, includ­ing Cuya­hoga County Exec­u­tive Ed FitzGer­ald, said they were happy that the turn­pike will not be turned to over to pri­vate investors, but said they had some con­cerns and need more time to study the proposal.

Their biggest worry was over how much money will go toward road­work in other parts of the state.

“To divert money that is being paid by the peo­ple that live and work in north­ern Ohio to pay for projects in other areas does not make good eco­nomic sense,” the group said in a statement.

Cur­rently, all of the tolls and the sale of gas and food fund the main­te­nance and oper­a­tion of the route, which stretches 241 miles.

The turn­pike car­ries about 50 mil­lion vehi­cles each year across north­ern Ohio from Penn­syl­va­nia to Indi­ana on what is mostly Inter­state 80.

Posted by AP News on Dec 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.