Mystery toll concessions bills from Iowa, NM senators - text obtained

We've at last obtained copies of the text of two mystery bills on tollroad concessions introduced in the US Senate six days ago (April 23) and greeted with loud applause by Washington DC trucker lobby groups, although neither of the senators sponsoring the bills - Jeff Bingaman (Dem NM), Chuck Grassley (Rep IO) had made any statement until mid-morning today.

Also the mystery tollroad bills were not listed in legislation sponsored by either senator on their websites.

The website 'Thomas' of the Library of Congress, the official repository for senate and house bills still said this morning that copies of the text of the bills had not been received.

We've been wondering whether the text had been written yet? Or lost? Not received yet from the trucker lobby offices?

Perhaps the constituents of the senators in New Mexico and Iowa don't know what a tollroad is, so the senators didn't want to confuse them? Neither state has a tollroad, or any proposals for tollroads.

Anyway enough analysis of the murky workings of the legislative sausage factory down the road in DC, as we say here in western Maryland.

Here's the text of the bills:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/s884.pdf

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/s885.pdf

see earlier report

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4126

Backdated press release

Also there's now a press release. It has been backdated to April 24:

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, April 24, 2009
 
 
BINGAMAN & GRASSLEY FIGHTING TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS BY ELIMINATING SUBSIDIES ON PRIVATE HIGHWAYS
 
            WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) today introduced two bills to eliminate expensive federal subsidies that now flow to privatized highways.
 
            Several state and local governments have already leased to private companies existing highways, including the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road, which were leased to private operators for 99 and 75 years, respectively.  When a state or city leases a highway, it receives significant compensation, but taxpayers almost always end up paying higher tolls to the private operator.
 
Current law provides private highway operators a federal subsidy through the tax code’s exceedingly generous cost-recovery provisions.  Specifically, the tax code allows a private highway operator to depreciate, or write off, the portion of a highway lease attributable to infrastructure if the lease is sufficiently long – generally, longer than the 45 years highway infrastructure is expected to last.  Once a lease beats that hurdle, the depreciation write-off occurs over 15 years – that is, the lessor’s entire investment is recovered over only one-third of the highway’s expected life.  And regardless of the lease’s actual length, the lessor can write off the right to collect tolls over 15 years, which in the case of the Chicago Skyway is less than one-sixth of the total lease period.  These write-off schedules amount to a generous tax subsidy and are driving exceptionally long leases.
 
            Meanwhile, federal highway funding continues to flow to the state, as though the highway had never been privatized – a practice that shortchanges states that do not have private highways.
 
            Bingaman and Grassley’s bills would end both forms of taxpayer subsidy.  Their “Transportation Access for All Americans Act” (S. 885) would revise the tax code’s cost-recovery schedules so that private lessors can write off their investments on a schedule that is consistent with what the Bureau of Economic Analysis says economic reality would dictate.   The “Transportation Equity for All Americans Act” (S. 884) would put a stop to double dipping, where a state government receives payments from both a private party and from the U.S. Treasury for the same highway.
 
“The tax code’s exceedingly generous cost-recovery provisions create a perverse incentive to tie up critical American infrastructure in private hands for generations to come,” said Bingaman, Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources.  “What we have is the tax tail wagging the dog, with dangerous consequences for America’s transportation policy.  We must eliminate this perverse incentive and stop subsidizing these private highway operators – who are primarily Spanish and Australian banks – with American tax dollars.”
 
“Our bills would protect taxpayers from the triple whammy of funding highway construction, giving generous tax breaks to private industry to maintain the infrastructure, and then paying tolls to use that infrastructure,” said Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
 
The senators noted that shutting down this tax subsidy could raise considerable revenue for the U.S. Treasury, and that they would consider using the revenue to address transportation finance challenges.
 
The Transportation Access for All Americans was sent to the Senate Finance Committee.  The Transportation Equity for All Americans Act was sent to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
 
          
-30-

END senators' statement

ADDITION: This was not among press releases on either senator's site as recently as this morning at 10am, but it is now there dated April 28 on Bingaman's site (see nearby at right) but no mention on Grassley's site.

COMMENT: We're holding off further comment for now, but any comment readers have would be welcome for use in a followup - editor.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-04-29