Lofty talk of integrity of integrated highways belied by pork-mongering
Posted Tue, 2007-06-12 19:48
The likes of US congressmen James Obertsar and Peter DeFazio talk loftily about the need to "preserve the integrity of our integrated national surface transportation systems". And they have assailed state law allowing concessionaires to "circumvent the planning process."
They use imagery which conjures up a make-believe world of rational longterm planning in which officials at all levels of government under wise federal oversight work to vet and rank transport projects according to their benefit/cost payoffs to "society" - an ideal process threatened by toll financed initiatives, especially from investors under PPP law.
In southwest Florida the local the Naples News' Julio Ochos has reported how this "planning process" and this "federal coordination" really works at the hands of US congressmen. The New York Times picked up on the story recently.
I-75 is the main drag through southwest Florida (Ft Myers, Naples) and there's vigorous local
discussion and 'planning' about how to upgrade the overloaded 2x2 lane expressway. Work is under way to do third laning, but 4th and perhaps 5th lanes will be needed according to traffic projections.
Should some of the upgrade be separate toll express lanes is one of the issues. How many of the interchanges should be rebuilt and in what order is another issue. Should it go to 10 lanes or should an alternate parallel expressway be built.
Longrange plans and traffic modeling assume two extra interchanges - one for the Golden Gates Parkway in Naples in the south, the other for a more direct connection to the area's SW Florida International Airport.
All of a sudden last year $10m appeared in a federal appropriation toward a new I-75 interchange at Coconut Road in southern Lee County. For a while the origins of this manna from Washington DC was a mystery. Local officials hadn't even thought about such an interchange let alone asked for money for it. The US Congressman for the area Connie Mack (Repub Ft Myers) knew nothing about it either.
The Naples Times discovered the Coconut Road Interchange funding was the work of Oberstar's predecessor as chairman of the House transportation and infrastructure committee congressman, Don Young, who supposedly represents a district in Alaska.
Young flew into the area Feb 19 2005 and spoke at a public meeting at the local university, then went to a fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Estero. Among the donors to Young's political slush fund that evening was $500 from Daniel Aronoff, a developer with 6,000 acres (2.5k ha) off Coconut Road just east of I-75. Young's records show he received another $2,500 from Aronoff a few weeks later.
And the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick reports (2007-06-06) that Aronoff helped raise another $40k for Young in the days before the $10m was appropriated for the Coconut Rd interchange.
The Times discovered a lobbyist prepared to talk about the affair.
"A consultant who helped push for the project spelled out why its supporters held the fund-raiser.
"We were looking for a lot of money," said the consultant, Joe Mazurkiewicz.
"We evidently made a very good impression on Congressman Young, and thanks to a lot of great work from Congressman Young, we got $81 million to expand Interstate 75 and $10 million for the Coconut Road interchange."
So for $43k Aronoff scored the $10m for the interchange, that if it's built increases the value of his 6,000 acres of developable land - from perhaps $200/acre to say $400/acre.
He makes perhaps $1.2m in return for $43k, a 28-fold return on his investment in a politician. Sounds like good business as the Mob would say.
However this kind of simple bribery is increasingly the reality of what gets called "federal oversight" and the "integrity of the national transportation system".
Such earmarks totaled some $24 billion in last year's surface transportation bill. They all do it, and although the sums involved are escalating it goes way back. Before Young there was a similar rogue called Bud Schuster, a central Pennsylvania pol who shook down developers, cities, counties, whoever, all over the country and just as shamelessly as the Alaskan.
COMMENT: We don't believe that developers are bad guys. On the contrary they do a important job assembling land, subdividing legal title, going through regulatory hoops, connecting utilities and delivering lots for people's houses and businesses and other buildings we need. Developers play a vital role in creating our communities and in providing us with places to live and work. They by and large get rewarded for providing a service which people value enough to pay them for voluntarily.
Aronoff is not the villain, Young is - and the hundreds of other politicians who traffic in favors with taxpayer money. Young sails awfully close to jailable racketeering - selling millions in grants he controls in return for thousands in campaign contributions. It is hard to see how anyone can interpret what he's doing as anything but soliciting bribes in return for corrupt grants of taxpayer money. Not just him either, all the earmarking politicians.
But is the interchange justified?
Planners are not omniscient. The fact that they haven't seen a need for an interchange at Coconut Road, and haven't planned one, doesn't prove much.
The best test of whether the the interchange is needed how LITTLE taxpayer money they need to get it built. Ideally some combination of user fees and landowner proffers will finance a justified interchange. Many interchanges now do get financed by developers. The Dulles Greenway in Virginia has had several funded by landowners. Florida's Turnpike recently opened a developer-built interchange at Becker Rd in Port St Lucie. Other interchanges can be justified through their boost to the future revenue stream of the road if it's a tollroad.
It isn't clear there is any public interest in using taxpayer money for such projects.
Keeping the mischief at home
Young has raised some 84% of his campaign money outside his own congressional district, the Times reports. Obviously we need a constitutional amendment to prohibit US Congressmen traveling outside the confines of their own district.
The rogues get up to more than enough mischief at home without having them roam all over the country. There are electronic legcuffs that could be used to enforce such restrictions - a kind of house arrest.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-06-12
The likes of US congressmen James Obertsar and Peter DeFazio talk loftily about the need to "preserve the integrity of our integrated national surface transportation systems". And they have assailed state law allowing concessionaires to "circumvent the planning process."They use imagery which conjures up a make-believe world of rational longterm planning in which officials at all levels of government under wise federal oversight work to vet and rank transport projects according to their benefit/cost payoffs to "society" - an ideal process threatened by toll financed initiatives, especially from investors under PPP law.
In southwest Florida the local the Naples News' Julio Ochos has reported how this "planning process" and this "federal coordination" really works at the hands of US congressmen. The New York Times picked up on the story recently.
I-75 is the main drag through southwest Florida (Ft Myers, Naples) and there's vigorous local discussion and 'planning' about how to upgrade the overloaded 2x2 lane expressway. Work is under way to do third laning, but 4th and perhaps 5th lanes will be needed according to traffic projections.Should some of the upgrade be separate toll express lanes is one of the issues. How many of the interchanges should be rebuilt and in what order is another issue. Should it go to 10 lanes or should an alternate parallel expressway be built.
Longrange plans and traffic modeling assume two extra interchanges - one for the Golden Gates Parkway in Naples in the south, the other for a more direct connection to the area's SW Florida International Airport.
All of a sudden last year $10m appeared in a federal appropriation toward a new I-75 interchange at Coconut Road in southern Lee County. For a while the origins of this manna from Washington DC was a mystery. Local officials hadn't even thought about such an interchange let alone asked for money for it. The US Congressman for the area Connie Mack (Repub Ft Myers) knew nothing about it either.
The Naples Times discovered the Coconut Road Interchange funding was the work of Oberstar's predecessor as chairman of the House transportation and infrastructure committee congressman, Don Young, who supposedly represents a district in Alaska.
Young flew into the area Feb 19 2005 and spoke at a public meeting at the local university, then went to a fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Estero. Among the donors to Young's political slush fund that evening was $500 from Daniel Aronoff, a developer with 6,000 acres (2.5k ha) off Coconut Road just east of I-75. Young's records show he received another $2,500 from Aronoff a few weeks later.
And the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick reports (2007-06-06) that Aronoff helped raise another $40k for Young in the days before the $10m was appropriated for the Coconut Rd interchange.The Times discovered a lobbyist prepared to talk about the affair.
"A consultant who helped push for the project spelled out why its supporters held the fund-raiser.
"We were looking for a lot of money," said the consultant, Joe Mazurkiewicz.
"We evidently made a very good impression on Congressman Young, and thanks to a lot of great work from Congressman Young, we got $81 million to expand Interstate 75 and $10 million for the Coconut Road interchange."
So for $43k Aronoff scored the $10m for the interchange, that if it's built increases the value of his 6,000 acres of developable land - from perhaps $200/acre to say $400/acre.
He makes perhaps $1.2m in return for $43k, a 28-fold return on his investment in a politician. Sounds like good business as the Mob would say.
However this kind of simple bribery is increasingly the reality of what gets called "federal oversight" and the "integrity of the national transportation system".
Such earmarks totaled some $24 billion in last year's surface transportation bill. They all do it, and although the sums involved are escalating it goes way back. Before Young there was a similar rogue called Bud Schuster, a central Pennsylvania pol who shook down developers, cities, counties, whoever, all over the country and just as shamelessly as the Alaskan.
COMMENT: We don't believe that developers are bad guys. On the contrary they do a important job assembling land, subdividing legal title, going through regulatory hoops, connecting utilities and delivering lots for people's houses and businesses and other buildings we need. Developers play a vital role in creating our communities and in providing us with places to live and work. They by and large get rewarded for providing a service which people value enough to pay them for voluntarily.
Aronoff is not the villain, Young is - and the hundreds of other politicians who traffic in favors with taxpayer money. Young sails awfully close to jailable racketeering - selling millions in grants he controls in return for thousands in campaign contributions. It is hard to see how anyone can interpret what he's doing as anything but soliciting bribes in return for corrupt grants of taxpayer money. Not just him either, all the earmarking politicians.
But is the interchange justified?
Planners are not omniscient. The fact that they haven't seen a need for an interchange at Coconut Road, and haven't planned one, doesn't prove much.
The best test of whether the the interchange is needed how LITTLE taxpayer money they need to get it built. Ideally some combination of user fees and landowner proffers will finance a justified interchange. Many interchanges now do get financed by developers. The Dulles Greenway in Virginia has had several funded by landowners. Florida's Turnpike recently opened a developer-built interchange at Becker Rd in Port St Lucie. Other interchanges can be justified through their boost to the future revenue stream of the road if it's a tollroad.
It isn't clear there is any public interest in using taxpayer money for such projects.
Keeping the mischief at home
Young has raised some 84% of his campaign money outside his own congressional district, the Times reports. Obviously we need a constitutional amendment to prohibit US Congressmen traveling outside the confines of their own district.
The rogues get up to more than enough mischief at home without having them roam all over the country. There are electronic legcuffs that could be used to enforce such restrictions - a kind of house arrest.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-06-12