The Agitator - Only in Texas
Private roads are one of those issues that libertarians debate in late night bull sessions when we're tired of the real world and dream of Libertopia. Rarely do we find this to be a live policy issue. If we turn our eyes to my home state of Texas, however, we'll find a debate brewing about a truly Texas-sized transportation project funded significantly by private interests: The Trans-Texas Corridor.
The TTC is a proposed superhighway that will cross the state in four priority routes, largely bypassing major urban areas and relieving traffic on the Interstates. The first proposed corridor will run from the Rio Grande Valley to Oklahoma. Each corridor will carry up to six passenger vehicle lanes, four truck lanes, commuter rail, freight rail, high-speed rail, utility pipelines, and electrical towers. The width? About a quarter mile. The cost? A typical estimate is $175 billion for the project. The aesthetics? I'll leave that to your imagination.
Aside from its scale, what's interesting about the TTC is that the construction will be largely, if not entirely, funded by private firms in exchange for long-term toll collection contracts. The first of these firms, the Spanish company Cintra, has already agreed to spend more $7 billion for a four lane highway between Dallas and San Antonio. This user fee financing is good for taxpayers and will encourage efficiency in construction and maintenance.
Of course, a project of this scale isn't purely private and the TTC opens the door to some very troubling forms of government abuse. The most obvious of these is forced takings through eminent domain. That's a consequence of any major transportation project, but the topographic requirements of the high-speed rail track will make the route of the TTC particularly inflexible. Ranchers and farmers are predictably opposed. Even if they are fairly compensated for land directly taken (a big if), they'll also suffer from having their land and towns divided. As a friend I consulted on this said, "It's hard to graze cattle when the barn is on one side of the tracks and the grass is on the other." Cattle Crossing signs on the TTC? That would be amusing, but even in Texas I don't think it's going to happen.
A second form of potential government abuse is cronyism in doling out the contracts and cozy, state-backed guarantees of revenue. The first mile has yet to be paved and already there are allegations of shady connections between Cintra and Governor Rick Perry's office. Expect to see much more of this as the project goes on.
A final concern is that business spurred by the project will be monopolized by the state and friendly corporations rather than by local entrepreneurs. Unlike on the Interstates, the TTC will intentionally avoid easy entrance and exit and the accompanying frontage development this allows. Railway depots and rest stops will most likely be contained within the TTC, conferring little benefit upon the towns and counties the highway cuts through.
Despite these problems, I find it hard to dismiss this as an unadulterated boondoggle (excepting perhaps the commuter rail portions) and can even give its backers credit for their forward thinking. After all, it's easier to build the roads today on land that is mostly undeveloped than later when more development has occurred. The Texas population is steadily growing and, hopefully, so will trade with Mexico. With transportation needs inevitably increasing, it might be wise to take this private, toll-based option now as the superior option to a tax-funded alternative later. Just be sure to keep a vigilant eye on the contracts and the takings.
The official TTC website is here. The leading opponent is www.corridorwatch.org. While its arguments are sometimes lamely against private funding per se, the latter site is the best source of information on the project. I'm interested in hearing others' takes on it.http://www.theagitator.com/archives/016743.php |
