politics

Polling by political consultant Dick Morris shows that public opinion prefers private to government financing of a toll bridge between Detroit Michigan and Windsor Ontario. A sample of 500 Michigan residents got 51.8% support for a privately financed second span to the Ambassador Bridge to 27.6% preferring a "government owned bridge" with 20.6% saying don't know or declining to answer.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (Republican) is replacing five of six Turnpike board members. She said she was pleased to find "so many qualified and dedicated community leaders to serve" on the OTA board.

New board members are:

- Carl Gibson, chief operating officer of Inoveon Corp

- Kenneth Adams, chairman of Adams Investment

- Albert C. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Spirit Bank

- KTAK Corp owner Kevin Hern and Gene Love, CEO Millennium Solutions Group

Fallin reappointed Democrat-appointee, attorney David Burrage.

Like many Democrats this election US Representative Christopher P Carney of the 10th District of Pennsylvania never talks about his party affiliation. And he says his top transportation priority is the Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway project, an upgrade to expressway standard of some 13 miles (21km) of US15 the main north-south highway of his district.

Both major contenders for the Maine governorship now want the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) to give consideration to all-electronic tolling (AET) as an alternative to building a new wide toll plaza at the business end of the Turnpike in York.

Paul Wageman the dominant figure at North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) for the past several years is suddenly out. He was a member of the board of NTTA via his nomination as a delegate of Collin County, one of the local governments that govern NTTA.

This week Collin County council (in Texan lingo a "Commissioners' Court") voted five to zero to replace Wageman as their delegate with an unknown to tolling, Jane Willard.

In most of the english speaking world there are toll roads, or tollroads to use the composite word preferred here. The term 'toll' is used more generally as a synonym for cost - and usually it is used in the context of a major burdensome cost.

Donations to politicians continue to create trouble for PBS&J, the big employee owned engineering firm headquartered in Tampa FL. There's news today that the company's chief financial officer says in a  Securities and Exchange Commission filing that they cannot file their annual report because of an ongoing internal investigation into possible illegal behavior by staff.

A close political race for state governor in New Jersey, and accusations that incumbent Gov Jon Corzine was reviving his 2006 plan for monetization of the Turnpike produced a commitment to freeze tolls during his next term. "No toll increases, no leasing of the turnpike...Off the table. Not happening, period." That's how Gov Corzine spoke today after tolls became a furore that he judged threatened his re-election.

A lot of the campaigning for the next governor in New Jersey is about who will get the most windmills erected and taxes contained and jobs saved, but incumbent Gov Jon Corzine is making a major pitch for enhancing tollroad capacity, showing up at two big groundbreakings in recent days, playing for the cameras.

July 2 Corzine and leading officials were at Hightstown for ceremonies to celebrate a start on widening the NJ Turnpike Exits 6 to 9.

Tolling should be a simple service business, providing and maintaining a road for motorists in return for fees from users. It should be rather mundane, boring even. After all pavement is hardly the most exciting of mankind's artifacts, and its upkeep hardly more than a lot of chores.

But as anyone currently living in Boston MA, or Orlando FL or West Virginia knows the toll business is nothing like that.