Texas’ roadways must be operated for the long-term public interest. Across Texas, cash-strapped governments and state agencies are struggling to plug gaping holes in their budgets while also struggling to meet evergrowing demands for improved transportation infrastructure and repair. Enter global private infrastructure companies and the investment banks that back them. Touting the benefits of public-private partnerships, these companies seek deals for privatized roads on which they’d charge and collect escalating tolls on motorists for decades to come. Road privatization offers a hard-to-resist “quick fix” for state budget and transportation challenges but are full of hidden problems that place the public interest in jeopardy.
In 2002, Governor Rick Perry announced his plans to build the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), a 4,000-mile swathe of highway, rail, and utility lines that would be built and operated by private investment entity, Cintra-Zachry. The investment group was poised to reap enormous profits, while the public would lose both the long-term toll revenues and control over transportation planning.
The Governor’s original plan was curtailed in the face of widespread public opposition and was a public relations disaster for both Governor Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The plan placed Governor Perry at odds with his own party as the state GOP party officially opposes the Corridor and resulted in a very public statement by TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz. In January 2009, TxDOT declared the precarious project dead, though this statement is false as many smaller segments of the original plan still live on and are advancing around the state.
Should Texas move forward with any future road building projects that use private investment, the Legislature must insist on specific protections for the public to ensure the needs of people come before any other special interest or investment entity? TexPIRG is pressing public officials to uphold six basic principles to protect the public interest:
1. Retain public control over transportation planning and management.
2. Ensure that the public receives fair long-term value for assets. Just because a state or locality faces dire fiscal straits, they shouldn’t sell public assets at a discount.
3. No deals longer than 30 years because lawmakers can not reasonably anticipate our transportation needs or assess the value of toll roads beyond a few decades.
4. Require state-of-the-art safety and maintenance standards that will increase over time.
5. Complete transparency and accountability must be maintained so the public knows the complete terms of specific proposed deals and lawmakers must vote on them.
6. No budget gimmicks. If governments do sign these deals, the money must be used to address other long-term transportation needs.
TexPIRG will continue to build public opposition, apply public pressure, mobilize coalitions of stake holders, and educate public officials until Texas’ roadways are safe from bad road privatization deals.
