Private turnpike largely beneficial

While cities like New York are beginning to envision environmentally friendly city… While cities like New York are beginning to envision environmentally friendly city transportation – including a newly introduced plan that would replace every New York City cab with a hybrid car within the next five years, according to the Associated Press – Pittsburgh is still busy figuring out how to keep our public transit system afloat.

One solution to the Pittsburgh Port Authority’s mounting deficits, which might prevent PAT from adding to the slew of massive bus route cutbacks and cancellations it announced earlier this week, would be leasing out the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator, an idea that Gov. Ed Rendell and other Pennsylvania legislators have been tossing around for months.

This week, three investors from New York investment group Morgan Stanley proposed to Rendell an outline of financial scenarios for a turnpike lease, as well as two other options for raising road, bridge and transit money in Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

And despite initial reservations about handing a huge public agency over to a private operator, it appears that a turnpike lease could solve many of our state’s financial woes.

According to the report, a 30-year lease could go for somewhere between an estimated $12 billion to $18 billion. The state then would invest that lump sum of money and collect interest on it – between 7 and 9 percent every year – in order to pay for other public investments, including the repair of roads and bridges as well as fueling money into Pittsburgh and Philadelphia’s mass transit agencies.

The proposal is not the cure-all to our state’s financial woes – Morgan Stanley’s estimate suggests that the profits would come in at an estimated $1.62 billion every year, at best, which would not completely cover the expense of all of the needed investments, but it could help to prevent our state legislature from tacking on additional taxes and raising turnpike and interstate tolls.

Unlike the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which is guaranteed a certain amount of state funding every year, a private operator will be entirely dependent on revenues, which means it would have to keep the consumer happy, which might mean more efficient construction projects and a drop in tolls for motorists.

But along with cutting away at some of the unnecessary burdens of turnpike transportation, a private operator might also cut wages and jobs. State employees tend to work for higher wages, even in unskilled positions, such as collecting tolls, so it is reasonable to assume that a private operator would minimize the amount of payroll expenses.

Cutting jobs is never a good thing, especially when our country is already suffering from a high unemployment rate, but in this situation, the benefits might outweigh the costs.

Currently, 47 parties have reported interest in purchasing the turnpike, which bodes well for the proposal. A large interest means that our state can choose investors based on the quality of their proposal as well as their monetary offer.

While handing over the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private agency would come along with a huge decrease in state monetary obligations, it should still be our state’s responsibility to make sure that we are provided with the best service possible. And in order for this plan to succeed, Pennsylvania needs to remain dedicated to offering oversight to whomever it leases the turnpike to make sure that a private investor doesn’t take our state for a ride.