What I don't understand about the PPTA is how the private companies make money on non-toll roads. The Greenway and the Pocahontas Parkway I understand--those are toll roads, and the tolls pay for the private companies' costs in building the roads (in theory, anyway). Same thing for the planned HOT lanes and the I-81 widening. But what about a road like VA-28? That's been widened and upgraded under the PPTA, but there are no tolls, so how does the private company recoup the money? What's the benefit? Development rights in the area, perhaps?

I view these things as a failure of leadership.

The people's assets (roads) should not be sold wealthy investors because political leaders lack the will to raise taxes to pay for public necessities.

These "public-private" deals are simply aa continuation of the Republican Party's hostility to government in general and part of a continual taxing our children and mortgaging of our future for short term political gain.

Rich, I think in the case of VA 28 the private side has two pieces, a tax district instigated by developers who already owned adjoining land and thought the road project would drive up the value of their land and current or future buildings, and possibly reduce the proffers they'd have to make to get site plans approved; and the other side of the "private" was purely outsourcing contract management for roadbuilding financed by the tax district.

I like the direction Kaine and MWAA have gone because I think taxing the public to build that rail line is a good thing (a value judgment) and I think MWAA has better than average management.
Indiana may be a special case in that their gov't and turnpike authority seem to have an unusually bad reputation, so getting things out of their hands may yield more gain from better management than I think you'd see here.

The airport authority has a proven record of getting things done. Billions from a private group would probably gone into the general fund and been lost to view, other money has. Politicians want their cut for their home areas from the toll road billions, whereas the airport authority will build the rail line. Sounds like a winning move to me.

Scott, the PPTA doesn't necessarily mean the sale of roads to private groups. The Pocahontas Parkway near Richmond, for example, was built by a private company in return for the rights to the toll revenue for a certain number of years, at which time the Commonwealth takes it over. The Dulles Greenway is similar, and the plan being considered for widening I-81 is as well. I don't see the problem with this idea--if the Commonwealth doesn't have the funding to build the road on its own, then why not cut a deal of this sort? Shirley Ybarra testified before Congress that it would have been at least another 15 years before the Pocahontas Parkway would have been built without the private investment.

Also, your silly comment about political parties displays a lack of education on the topic. Virginia's first privatly-built road in modern times, the Dulles Greenway, was authorized by the Democrats in 1988 during the Baliles administration. Both President Bush I and President Clinton supported projects of this sort. Moreover, Virginia has had Democrats in the Governor's Mansion since 2001 and they've both sought to expand PPTA projects (the Beltway HOT lanes and I-81 being the most obvious). Methinks your protests are misguided.

Why can't we have a tollroad authority whose only interest is building, managing, and paying off bonds from tollroads? In Texas, the North Texas Tollroad Authority (NTTA) builds, owns, and manages the tollroads as an extension of the state. The NTTA issues bonds that are paid off by toll revenue, meaning that they won't take on projects that won't recover the investment. They used to pay off the bonds with the plan of making the road free when the bonds were paid off; however, with increased costs of maintenance and pressure of expansion, the surplus of the tolls now goes to other connecting or related roads for the area. Therefore, the tolls benefit the very people who are paying them and using the roads, not an investor, not some other fund. Why can't we do that here? Create an authority whose interest is building roads for the greater DC area. Yes, that would mean MD, VA and even DC working together, fat chance, but we're desperate here.

Rich-
Now that the 2006 VA Budget appears to have no new funding for transportation because of the Republican controlled House then maybe Scott's argument has some merit.

Rich - "If the Commonwealth doesn't have the funding...."

We've found over $200B for a war in Iraq - the first supplemental for Iraq ($87B) was nearly 20 times the cost of the rail line to Dulles. It's all a question of priorities - we have the money, our "leaders" just don't have the will.

We would also have the money (or at least more money) for improvements if our tax structure was designed to keep pace with needs. Structuring gas taxes on a cent per gallon basis makes no sense - it should be a percentage. Taxes have not gone up while maintainance, construction costs, and MPG have gone up. It's no wonder we're running out of money.

Our Government suffers from a lack of willpower. "Public-private partnerships" are cop outs for electeds that don't want to be tagged as tax raisers. That's the bottom line.