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February 7, 2012

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Florida Toll Agencies Should Not Be Consolidated

OOCEA and THEA need to become fully independent, self-supporting local toll authorities, like MDX

Daryl Fleming, Robert Poole

The 2011 Florida legislative session saw several proposals that would have consolidated some or all of the local toll authorities into the Florida Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Later that year, a Work Group of the Government Efficiency Taskforce (GET) produced a report calling for most of the functions of the local toll authorities of Orlando (OOCEA) and Tampa (THEA) to be consolidated with FTE. The purpose of this study is to assess the arguments for and against the consolidation of toll agencies in Florida.

Our Reason Foundation project team carried out a review of how toll roads and bridges are provided in Florida. Since most of the focus of consolidation proposals is on local toll authorities (LTAs) in the state’s major urban areas, we reviewed how other fast-growing states are using toll finance to add modern toll facilities to their urban expressway systems. We also reviewed two relatively recent toll agency consolidations, in New Jersey and Massachusetts. And we also analyzed the GET Work Group’s estimate of $24 million in annual cost savings from consolidation of OOCEA and THEA with FTE.

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Tulsa: Open for Business

Tackling city's challenges requires willingness to embrace innovation, competition and market ideas

Dewey Bartlett, Jr.
Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma

On my first day in office, my finance director greeted me with the sober news that, after ten consecutive months of declining sales tax revenues, all previous measures to balance the city budget had failed to stop the real threat of deficit spending. We quickly discerned that the city government had not prepared for times such as these. City government had grown too big, it cost too much, it was doing too much, and it had made commitments and promises to our government employee unions that could not be kept. We clearly understood our challenge—maintain fiscal solvency while providing essential government services. My vision was equally clear—to restore, redirect and reform government services to prevent Tulsa from ever again finding itself in this vulnerable situation.

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President Obama Wrong on Keystone

How the president put the interests of a few environmentalists before the interests of the entire nation

Adam Peshek

When the Obama Administration decided Wednesday to deny TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline permit, the president abandoned his aim to create more jobs in America and deserted America's chance for energy security.

 

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77 Percent of Americans Oppose Raising the Gas Tax, Reason-Rupe Transportation Poll Finds

Poll finds a majority of voters support tolls over taxes to pay for roads and favor using public-private partnerships to build critical infrastructure

A majority of Americans believe new transportation projects should be paid for with user-fees instead of tax increases, according to a new national Reason-Rupe poll of 1,200 adults on cell phones and land lines.

The Reason-Rupe poll finds 77 percent of Americans oppose increasing the federal gas tax, while just 19 percent favor raising the tax, which is currently 18.4 cents a gallon. The public thinks the government wastes the gas tax money it already receives. Sixty-five percent say the government spends transportation funding ineffectively, and just 23 say the money is spent effectively.

The survey shows Americans believe new roads and highways should be paid for by the people driving on them: 58 percent of Americans say new roads and highways should be funded by tolls paid by those driving on them. Twenty-eight percent say new road capacity should be paid for by tax increases.  

The Reason-Rupe poll finds broad support for user-fees. If a toll road would save drivers a “significant” amount of time, 59 percent of Americans say they would pay to use it. And 57 percent favor converting carpool lanes, or high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, into high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. Voters are much-less supportive of variably-priced toll lanes, however. Half of those surveyed oppose, and 39 percent favor, variably-priced tolls that rise and fall with traffic levels.

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Banks Viewed Twice as Favorably as the Federal Government, Reason-Rupe Poll Finds

Survey examines how Ron Paul, Sarah Palin, Michael Bloomberg and Gary Johnson could do as third-party presidential candidates and asks Americans which federal agencies they’d cut

The Occupy Wall Street movement tapped into anger about bank bailouts, crony capitalism and corporate welfare, but it turns out that most Americans are mad at the federal government and not their banks. A new Reason-Rupe Poll finds 76 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of their banks and just 15 percent view them unfavorably.

In contrast, only 32 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the federal government. Sixty-two percent of voters rate the federal government unfavorably, according to the national Reason-Rupe poll of 1,200 adults on cell phones and landlines.  

Forty-nine percent of Americans approve of the job President Obama is doing, with 47 percent disapproving. Only 13 percent approve of the job Congress is doing, 80 percent disapprove.

Fifty-four percent of Americans also say they are more worried that the federal government will do something to make the economy worse, while 40 percent are more worried that the government will fail to take action on the economy.

State governments are more popular than the feds, but only half of all Americans view them positively. As you get closer to home, 58 percent of Americans have positive views of their local governments and the same number look upon their local school districts favorably.

The survey finds people feel a lot better about private businesses. For example, 88 percent of Americans have a positive view of their grocery stores; 73 percent look favorably upon their cell phone makers; and 69 percent say they view their Internet service providers favorably.

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